Kevin T. Early Memorial Scholarship

Earlier this week I met with Yarah Kudaimi, the winner of this year's Kevin T. Early Memorial Scholarship. This award, given in honor of Kevin T. Early, who was a promising young poet, goes annually to recognize the best poetry submitted by a U of I Freshman. Submissions (a total of 38 this year) are judged anonymously by members of our creative writing faculty.

It is a treat for me to be able to speak with each year's winner, because good, young poets are pretty much guaranteed to be thoughtful, interesting people. Ms. Kudaimi, who has not yet declared a major, is certainly no exception to this rule. She reads Arabic, for example, and when I asked her what poets she liked to read she mentioned Charles Simic right away. How many Freshman have a favorite contemporary poet, I wonder? Is this some new trend?

Ms. Kudaimi also struck me as very self-possessed: in addition to telling me who she liked to read, she asked me who I enjoy reading (I told her, for those keeping score at home, that I liked Christopher Marlowe, James Wright, and Wallace Stevens). The faculty judge of this contest praised Kudaimi's poems for their "clear voice, compelling detail," and "sense of lived experience." Also for their concision, their avoidance of abstraction, and their "well-shaped" lines. Very Impressive, all around. So: congratulations!