His prize will include the publication of his debut full-length poetry collection, which will be titled “Syndrome”, and a $2000 cash prize.
This is a national prize that is sponsored by the writing program and was set up to honour Levine, who was a Fresno State professor emeritus in English, the winner of the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the poet laureate of the US in 2011.
The Levine Prize judge for the final for 2022 was Juan Felipe Herrera, a poet, activist and former US poet laureate.
He chose the manuscript by Morales-Franceschini from a total of 755 submissions. Herrera also picked a further four manuscripts, which he felt were worthy of special mention.
These were written by Asnia Asim, Jamie Wendt, Liz Harms and Aerik Francis.
Morales-Franceschini is a US Army veteran and former construction worker who graduated from community college and is now an assistant professor of Latin American studies and English at the University of Georgia, which is in Athens.
He was born in Puerto Rico.
