October 16, 2013

Professor makes short list for National Book Award

Mary Szybist, associate professor of English, is a short-list finalist for the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry with her latest collection, Incarnadine.

Mary Szybist, associate professor of English, is a short-list finalist for the 2013 National Book Award in Poetry with her latest collection, Incarnadine. She joins four of the country’s preeminent writers of contemporary poetry on the finalists list, announced today by the National Book Foundation.

Incarnadine explores religious iconography and was inspired by time spent in the art museums of Italy. “I was struck by how relatively few scenes—nearly all of them religious—were the subjects of most of the paintings,” Szybist told the Oregonian. “On the one hand, I felt relief that artists are no longer confined to such narrow subject matter. On the other hand, so many astonishing paintings emerged from those confines. To what extent had those limitations enabled the art?”

Read more about Mary Szybist and Incarnadine.