Camille Dungy has been named the 13th recipient of the Paul Engle Prize, presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization.
The prize, established in 2011, honors an individual who, like 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.
The prize includes a $25,000 award and a one-of-a-kind work of art. Dungy will receive the award at a ceremony at 7 p.m. on November 14, at the Coralville Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.
Dungy is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University who has been honored with several awards over the course of her career, including the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, and fellowships from the NEA in both prose and poetry.
In her work she addresses issues around ecology and environmentalism, motherhood and race. Her books include 2023’s Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, and Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She also has four collections of poetry, including Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award. She edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, the first anthology to bring African American environmental poetry to national attention.
She is poetry editor for Orion magazine, and hosts “Immaterial,” a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Magnificent Noise that explores the materials used in the creation of works of art.
Dungy said she was honored to be selected for this year’s prize, particularly given her ties to Iowa City. She graduated from West High School, and her parents had long affiliations with the University of Iowa.
“I am beyond thrilled to receive this honor from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature,” she said. “You may know that I attended my last three years of high school in Iowa City (Go West!) I already loved writing before my family moved to town, but in Iowa City I met REAL writers. Importantly, what this meant to me is that I met a lot of real people who were also dedicated writers. Writers who also worked in the world in a variety of professions they balanced alongside their dedication to the page. Writers who cared about fostering community, and who showed this care through their everyday actions. Writers who built and administered programs that helped cultivate new generations of writers in Iowa City and all over the world. Writers like Paul Engle and so many others, who fundamentally believed in the power of literature to build a stronger, more caring, and more connected world.
“In Iowa City, I learned what it meant to be a literary citizen, and I came to understand that this was just the type of writer I wanted to become,” she continued. “So here I am, no longer a high school kid, but still working every day to be the best literary citizen I can be. To be seen in this way, for this award, honored with the Paul Engle Prize from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature! Good day almighty! I almost find myself without words.”
The Paul Engle Prize is made possible through the generous support of the City of Coralville, which is home to 11 permanent sculptures with artistic and literary ties to Iowa. The sculptures all have ties to work found in The Iowa Writers’ Library, housed in the Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel, which features about 800 books written by former students, graduates and faculty of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
The Engle Prize itself is a one-of-a-kind work of art created by M.C. Ginsberg in Iowa City. Each piece is crafted to reflect the work and impact of the recipient, while tying it to the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.
Paul Engle (October 12, 1908 – March 22, 1991), though best remembered as the long-time director of the Writers’ Workshop and co-founder with his wife, Hualing Nieh Engle, of the UI’s International Writing Program, was also a well-regarded poet, playwright, essayist, editor and critic. In 2000, then-Gov. Tom Vilsack declared Engle’s birthday, Oct. 12, as “Paul Engle Day” in Iowa.
Previous winners of the prize are: James Alan McPherson, Kwame Dawes, Luis Alberto Urrea, Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee, Dina Nayeri, Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Dr. Eve L. Ewing, Rebecca Solnit, and Joan Naviyuk Kane.
Visit www.iowacityofliterature.org/paul-engle-day for more information about the prize and past winners.