Poetry Prize Winner Announced

Mona Lisa Saloy of New Orleans, is the winner of the 2005 T.S. Elliot Prize for Poetry. The Truman State University Press sponsors the award.

Saloy, associate professor of English and director of creative writing at Dillard University in New Orleans, won with her poetry collection, “Red Beans and Ricely Yours.” Saloy’s compilation was selected from nearly 450 manuscripts in the ninth annual competition. Saloy is a doctoral candidate at Louisiana State University in English and anthropology.

The T.S. Elliot Prize, established in 1996 to honor the poet’s intellectual and artistic legacy, is awarded for a book-length collection of poetry.

Saloy will receive $2,000 and have her book published by summer 2005.

Ishmael Reed judged this year’s competition for the award. Reed is a novelist, poet, playwright and essayist and has published 23 books and six plays.

Reed selected four other finalists, including Indigo Moor of Rancho Cordova, Calif., Jim Peterson of Lynchberg, Va., Jane Langley of Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Leonard Orr of Richland, Wash.