Professor of English C.D. Wright is among the finalists for this year's National Book Award. Her book, "One With Others: [a little book of her days]," was announced as a finalist in the poetry category Oct. 13.
The book is "a kind of hybrid text," that combines poetry and prose, Wright said. It serves as "both a tribute to a late friend of mine, who was an autodidact, and a sort of footnote to civil rights," she said. The friend to whom the book pays tribute, referred to as V in the text, died a few years ago.
Wright has previously published a dozen books of poetry. "One With Others" is still in production and will be published in about a week, she said.
If Wright wins the National Book Award, it will be her sixth major award for poetry. Her previous awards include the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Griffin Poetry Prize, which she won last year for her book "Rising, Falling, Hovering."
The winner will be announced next month and will receive $10,000 and a bronze statue, according to the National Book Foundation's website. Last year's winner for poetry was another Brown professor, Keith Waldrop, professor of English.
But for Wright, the awards are not what matters.
"It's not the same thing as readers," she said, "and it doesn't necessarily translate into readers. That would be a great benefit if it did."
