Prize is sponsored by philanthropists and funders of the African
Poetry Book Fund, Laura and Robert Sillerman, whose annual
bequest has continued to fund the work of the African Poetry Book
Fund in its publishing and promotion of African poetry.
Of winning the prize, Shiferraw says, "I am extremely humbled and
honored to have won the Sillerman; the fact that my poems will
finally have a life of their own after so much wandering is beyond
anything I could ever have hoped for."
Kwame Dawes, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund and Prairie
Schooner Editor-in-Chief, says, “Every year, we wonder where the
new and dynamic voices will emerge from to grab our attention, and
this year has been no different. Shiferraw’s verse is elegantly formed
work that explores with sophistication the complexities of exile and
return, of memory and hope in the future through sharply-honed
images, and through a vulnerability that is haunting and disarming.”
Mahtem Shiferraw is a poet, visual artist, and cultural activist. She
grew up in Eritrea & Ethiopia. Her poems have been published in the
2River View, Blast Furnace Literary Journal, Blood Lotus Literary
Journal, Cactus Heart Press, Mad Hatters Review, Mandala Literary
Journal, and Blackberry Magazine and are forthcoming from Diverse
Voices Quarterly and Callaloo Literary Journal. Her prose appears in
the Bitter Oleander Press and Long Story, Short Journal. She was
nominated for Best of the Net in 2013 and her short story “The River”
was a finalist at Glimmer Train Press Open Fiction. She received her
MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College.
17
Le portrait magazine