Ghana, weep no more, Iowa City UNESCO names Kwame the recipient of ‘2013 Paul Eagle Prize’

As the tragic death of poet, Kofi Awoonor is still fresh in the air, a U.S.-based Ghanaian-born academician, Kwame Dawes, has been named the second recipient of the Paul Engle Prize, an award by the Iowa City UNESCO Literature organization.


The prize, established in 2011, honors an individual who, like the late Paul Engle {1908- 1991}, represents a pioneering spirit in the world of literature through writing, editing, publishing, or teaching, and whose active participation in the larger issues of the day has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts. 

 

Kwame Dwames

Dawes, a Chancellor Professor of English at the University of Nebraska teaches post-colonial literature and theory, African-American literature, and Caribbean literature. 

He is a member of the creative writing program. Dawes serves as the Editor of an 85-year-old quarterly journal Prairie Schooner of Glenna Luschel, and founding Series of the African Poetry Book Fund and Series.

A press statement by the Iowa City reads in part: In nominating Dawes for the Engle Prize, IWP Associate Director Hugh Ferrer wrote, “In the intervening years, (Dawes) has become arguably the leading creative force of Caribbean literature, helping in all aspects of his activities to create and promote the poetry and Poetics of the trans-Atlantic African diaspora. His generosity of spirit within the literary world was reflected in his winning of the 2012 Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers award; and his immense creative capacities were acknowledged last year by the Guggenheim Foundation.” 


The prize honors an individual who, like the late Paul Engle, represents a pioneering spirit in the world of literature through writing, editing, publishing, or teaching, and whose active participation in the larger issues of the day has contributed to the betterment of the world through the literary arts.