Haesong Kwon has won the 2014 Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize, which is awarded annually to the author of the best poem or group of poems appearing that year in the Michigan Quarterly Review. His poem “Epistle,” appeared in the Fall 2014 issue.
This year’s judge, Khaled Mattawa, describes the poem as “a minimalist gem that employs a taut modernist aesthetic to tell an American immigrant saga where identity, grief, and the acceptance of change tussle and generate varied emotions. It is a profound telegram/epistle from a poet who has thought hard about the attendant themes of exile and managed to put the best words in the best order.”
The Laurence Goldstein Prize was established in 2002 by a generous gift from the Office of the President of the University of Michigan and is awarded in the amount of $500. A different judge is selected each year by the university.
Haesong Kwon lives and works in Stillwater, Oklahoma. His poems have appeared in Louisville Review, Columbia Poetry Review, and Mid-American Review.
