Acclaimed Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah receives $100,000 prize

NEW YORK (AP) — Fady Joudah, an acclaimed Palestinian-American poet who has said he writes for the future because “the present is demolished,” has received a $100,000 award from Poets & Writers. Joudah is this year’s winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize, which is given to an American writer of exceptional talent. He was chosen by a panel of three poets: Natalie Diaz, Gregory Pardlo, and Diane Seuss. The judges cited Joudah’s “significant and evolving body of work, distinguished by his courage to speak in the face of the unspeakable, in poems of lyric concision and intensity.”