Douglas Kearney

Kearney is a graduate and fellow of Cave Canem, and has received support from the Idyllwild Summer Arts Poetry Workshop, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. In 2007, the Poetry Society of America named Kearney a Notable New American Poet. The following year, his second full-length collection, The Black Automaton, was selected for the National Poetry Series. Kearney wrote the libretto for George Lewis's opera The Comet, which was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Selected awards and honors • Year — Title — Award — Result — References • 2006 — "Swimchant for Nigger Mer-folk" (poem) — Coat Hanger Award — Winner • 2008 — — — Whiting Award — Winner • 2008 — The Black Automaton — National Poetry Series — Selection • 2015 — Patter — California Book Award for Poetry — Finalist • 2017 — Buck Studies — California Book Award for Poetry — Silver • CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry — Winner • Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize — Winner • 2021 — — — Campbell Opera Librettist Prize — Winner • Sho — National Book Award for Poetry — Finalist • 2022 — Sho — Griffin Poetry Prize — Winner • Hurston/Wright Legacy Award — Finalist • 2023 — Optic Subwoof — CLMP Firecracker Award for Creative Nonfiction — Winner • Poetry Foundation Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism — Winner • 2026 — I Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always — Pulitzer Prize for Poetry — Finalist