Yanyi
Vermont
Poet/critic
Yanyi is a poet and critic whose work searches for a kind of literature that can return the reader’s--and practitioner’s--consciousness of themself. His first book and winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019), employs diaristic prose poems to contemplate art, intimacy, mental health, and the changing formation of the self. His second book, Dream of the Divided Field (One World 2022), uses a range of forms to question binaries of all kinds — of existence, abuse, love, and bodies — with critical tenderness. His research has explored the relationships between poetry, fascism, and literary institutions. He was most recently poetry editor at Foundry Journal and wrote an advice column for writers called The Reading”. He edits and teaches writing at large.
This bio/description was originally published in 2022 and updated in 2022. For more current information, please refer to the award recipient's website (if provided).