Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

U. of I. poetry professor Tyehimba Jess wins Whiting Writers’ Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.- A young poet and professor of poetry at the University of Illinois has won a prestigious literary award.

Tyehimba Jess was one of 10 U.S. writers to win the 2006 Whiting Writers’ Award.

The award, given annually to “emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise,” includes a cash prize of $40,000 to each winner.

Jess, who joined the English department in 2005, won the 2004 National Poetry Series Award for his first book, “leadbelly.”

His fiction and poetry have appeared in “Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence” (Penguin, 1996); “Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry” (Manic D Press, 2000); “Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam” (Three Rivers Press, 2001); “Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century” (Black Classic Press, 2002); “Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art” (Third World Press, 2002); and “Dark Matter 2: Reading the Bones” (Aspect Press, 2004).

He also is the author of a non-fiction book, “African American Pride: Celebrating Our Achievements, Contributions, and Enduring Legacy” (Citadel Press, 2003).

An alumnus of Cave Canem and New York University, Jess received a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004 and was a 2004-2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

He won the 2001 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in Poetry for 2000-2001, and the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award.

He was on the 2000 and 2001 Chicago Green Mill Slam teams.

The 2006 Whiting Award recipients were announced in New York Oct. 25.

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010