Julia Bouwsma awarded $50,000 fellowship by the Academy of American Poets
By Kate O'Brien-Nicholson
6th August 2024
We are thrilled to announce that Julia Bouwsma, an esteemed author and poet with Fordham University Press, has been named one of the 2024 Poet Laureate Fellows by the Academy of American Poets. This prestigious honor recognizes poets of exceptional talent and dedication to their craft, and we are proud to see Bouwsma’s incredible work celebrated on this national platform.
The Academy’s Poet Laureate Fellowship, which is supported by the Mellon Foundation, will fund the work of twenty-two poets laureate in communities across the country
Julia Bouwsma has made significant contributions to the world of poetry through her poignant and thought-provoking collections, captivating readers with her powerful voice and imagery. Her poetry collection, Midden, published by Fordham University Press, highlights her exceptional talent for creating works that profoundly connect with readers, evoking deep emotional and intellectual responses.
Photo credit: Margot Cochran
Awards and Recognition for Midden
- Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Poetry
- Finalist for the Julie Suk Award
- Selected as one of NPR’s 2018 Great Reads
- One of Book Riot’s 50 Must Read Poetry Collections of 2019
About Midden
Midden confronts the events and over one hundred years of silence surrounding a shameful incident in Maine’s history. In 1912, the State of Maine forcibly evicted an interracial community of roughly forty-five people from Malaga Island, a small island off the coast of Phippsburg, Maine. Though Malaga had been their home for generations, nine residents (including the entire Marks family) were committed to the Maine School for the Feeble Minded in Pownal, Maine. The others struggled to find homes on other islands or on the mainland, where they were often unwelcome. The Malaga school was dismantled and rebuilt as a chapel on another island. Seventeen graves were exhumed from the Malaga cemetery, consolidated into five caskets, and reburied at the Maine School for the Feeble Minded. Just one year after the start of the eviction proceedings, the Malaga community was erased.
Midden is a poetic excavation of loss, a carving of the landscape of memory, and a reckoning with and tribute to the ghosts we carry and step over, often without our even knowing it. Utilizing a wide range of poetic styles—epistolary poems to ghosts, persona poems, erasure poems, interior poems, interviews, and instructions—Midden explores the vital connections between land, identity, and narrative and asks how we can heal the generations and legacies of damage that result when all three of these are deliberately taken in an attempt to rob people of their very humanity.
In their announcement, the Academy of American Poets highlights the achievements and projects of the 2024 Poet Laureate Fellows, emphasizing the importance of poetry in communities across the country. Bouwsma’s fellowship will support her ongoing efforts to engage with readers and promote the transformative power of poetry.
You can read the full press release from the Academy of American Poets by clicking here.
We look forward to seeing Bouwsma’s continued impact in the literary community as she begins this exciting new chapter as a Poet Laureate Fellow.
Congratulations, Julia!
FREE SHIPPING on Julia’s award-winning volume of poems, Midden, Click HERE and use coupon code MIDDEN-FI at checkout. Expires 8/31/24