Hannah Sanghee Park
NEW YORK (AP) – A young Korean American poet has received a $5,000 award for first-time writers that also ensures the publication and thousands of sales of her debut collection.
Hannah Sanghee Park has won the Walt Whitman Award, the Academy of American Poets announced Wednesday.
Park’s book, “The Same-Different,” will be released next year by Louisiana State University. The poetry academy will purchase thousands of copies and distribute them to its members.
Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout chose Park for the award and praised “Same-Different” as a “literally dazzling debut.”
The 27-year-old Park was born in Tacoma. She earned a BA from the University of Washington, and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she is a student at the Writing for Screen & Television Division of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
She is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop. (end)