Nazim Hikmet poetry awards announced in US
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Nazım Hikmet
The Nazim Hikmet Poetry Competition winners have been announced. The fourth Nazim Hikmet Poetry Competition received over 700 poems from 250 poets. Overall 32 percent of the poems were submitted by poets who lived outside the United States. More than half, 53 percent, of the poems were submitted from North Carolina, and New York and California followed. The finalists are Hala Alyan, Peter Blair, Kevin Boyle, Amy Leigh Brown, Tim Van Dyke, Hedy Habra, Jeffrey Kahrs, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Anna Lena Phillips and Iris Tillman.The idea of a festival as a tribute to this preeminent poet emerged among friends in the North Carolina Turkish community who appreciated his work and the ideals of his life. As the excitement to organize such a festival grew with encouragement from the community, an open event was favored to draw on Hikmet‘s poetry and its ability to reach and influence other poets, and to grow into a poetry festival that would feature not only Hikmet’s transcending work but also work from other local talents. The event was dedicated to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.