Pittsburgh, PA — Migwi Mwangi is the winner of the 2026 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. His collection, Desire Path, was selected by Terrance Hayes. The University of Pittsburgh Press will publish Desire Path as part of the acclaimed Pitt Poetry Series in September 2026. “Migwi is going to be a significant poet not only because of his poetic intelligence but also because of the background enriching the poems: a rich experience in the world, a rich curiosity, a rich sense of empathy, and a richness of humility,” offers Terrance Hayes, author of So To Speak. “Throughout Desire Path, the…

Pittsburgh, PA – Patricia Grace King, of Durham, England, is the winner of the 2026 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for a collection of short fiction. King’s collection, Those Who Vanish, was selected by Quan Barry. Those Who Vanish will be published in September 2026. “The stories in Patricia Grace King’s ravishing Those Who Vanish chronicle the consequences of inhabiting spaces both physical and psychic where one doesn’t naturally belong,” offered Barry, author of The Unveiling. “In stories ranging from conflict-ravaged Guatemala to the American Midwest and beyond, King’s unrelenting exploration of our need…

Pittsburgh, PA – The Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize:  Afua Ansong, Mother’s First Word Was Light  Robert Laidler, Glass Letter  Max Lasky, Against Adieu  Migwi Mwangi, Desire Path  Jessica Nordell, Your Singing Is How We Will Find You    The winner, selected by Terrance Hayes, will be announced on January 28, 2026.   Established in 1981, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is administered by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Named in honor of Agnes Lynch Starrett, the Press’s first director, the prize is awarded for a first full-length book of poems.  Past winners…

No Rhododendron by Samyak Shertok has been longlisted for the 2026 PEN Open Book Award, the PEN America Literary Awards announced. No Rhododendron is one of ten finalists, which goes “to an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of color.” Part elegy, part poetry of witness, and part poetry of exile, No Rhododendron is a lament to the poet-speaker’s father and fatherland and a grief-wrought love letter to his mother and mother tongue. The collection is haunted by an existential question about Shertok’s oral mother tongue, Tamang: How do you write about a language that has…

The University of Pittsburgh Press celebrated the 45th winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize with a series of events around the country promoting Bill Gaythwaite and his collection, A Place in the World. On October 9th, Left Bank Books in St. Louis hosted a reading with Gaythwaite and Ramona Reeves, winner of the 2022 DHLP.  On October 22nd, Gaythwaite traveled to Minneapolis for a conversation with Mubanga Kalimamukwento (DHLP ’24) at Magers and Quinn.   The tour concluded in Pittsburgh with two events. On October 28th, City of Asylum hosted Gaythwaite, Caroline Kim, and Kelly Sather for a conversation about the…