Prairie Schooner, the quarterly literary journal published by the University of Nebraska, has announced the establishment of the Glenna Luschei Prize. The new prize will be awarded annually to a collection of poetry published in the previous year by an African poet. The award will include a $5,000 cash prize.
Glenna Luschei, a published poet and the founder of Solo Press, has created an endowment to fund the new prize.
The winner of the inaugural Glenna Luschei Prize will be announced in October. The judge for this year’s competition is Nigerian writer and poet Chris Abani. A native of Nigeria, Abani received a bachelor’s degree in English from Imo State University in Nigeria. He holds a master’s degree in English, Gender, and Culture from Birkbeck College of the University of London and a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Southern California. He has published several collections of poetry and a number of novels including his latest work, The Secret History of Las Vegas (Penguin 2014).
