Book Prize Winners to Read for poets Out Loud

The winners of the Poets Out Loud (POL) Book Prize, Gary Keenan and
Michael Snediker, will share their work at the POL reading on Nov. 16,
along with fellow poet Monica Youn. The event serves as the official
launch of this year’s winners of the Book Prize, a series directed and
edited by Elisabeth Frost in coordination with Fordham Press. Both
volumes were selected from nearly 300 submissions. Keenan's book,
Rotary Devotion, was selected by poet Alice Fulton. Snediker's volume,
The New York Editions, was selected by Elisabeth Frost.

Keenan grew up in Hingham, Massachusetts and studied at Cornell and
CUNY Brooklyn. He has been published in literary journals since 1979.
Keenan is also an active musician and composer. He plays in the
Americana group American String Conspiracy, and writes scores for
dance and theatrical productions.

Snediker’s works include The Apartment of Tragic Appliances and Queer
Optimism: Lyric Personhood and Other Felicitous Persuasions, which was
a finalist for the MLA First Book Prize. He is an Associate Professor
of American Literature and Poetics at the University of Houston.

Youn’s most recent work, BLACKACRE, published in 2016, won the William
Carlos Williams Award, was a finalist for the National Book Critics
Circle Award, and received praise from The New York Times, The
Washington Post, and Buzzfeed.

All the poets will read from their work, and Keenan will also perform
musical settings of two poems by Herman Melville.