The New England Poetry Club is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual grants:
- Krysten Hill – NEPC Individual Grant for Poetic Achievement
- Shanta Lee – NEPC Individual Grant for Poetic Achievement
- Veronica Njuguna – NEPC Project Proposal Grant
Members of the New England Poetry Club’s board served as judges. With these grants, the NEPC aims to amplify and encourage the work of Black and BIPOC poets as it continues to build a vibrant community through poetry.
Congratulations to the award winners. Each will receive a grant recognizing their projects, artistry, and literary citizenship.
Krysten Hill is the author of How Her Spirit Got Out (Aforementioned Productions, 2016), which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. She has featured work on stage at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, Boston Book Festival, Blacksmith House, U35 Reading Series, and other places. Her work has appeared in The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day Series, Poetry Magazine, Painted Bride Quarterly, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Winter Tangerine Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, the 2023 Vermont Studio Center Residency, the 2024 SWWIM Residency, and The Kenyon Review’s 2024 Peter Taylor Fellowship. She is currently the Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University.
Shanta Lee is an award-winning writer across genres, a visual artist, and a public intellectual actively participating in the cultural discourse with work that has been widely featured. Winner of the Abel Meeropol Social Justice award, she was the creator and producer of Vermont Public’s “Seeing…the Unseen and In-Between within Vermont’s Landscape.” Shanta Lee is the author of several books and a regular contributor to Ms. Magazine and Art New England. Her books include GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak Woman in Woke Tongues, winner of the 2020 Diode Press full-length book prize and the 2021 Vermont Book Award. Black Metamorphoses was named a finalist in the 2021 Hudson Prize, shortlisted for the 2021 Cowles Poetry Book Prize, and longlisted for the 2021 Idaho Poetry Prize. Shanta Lee’s latest work, This Is How They Teach You How to Want It…The Slaughter: A Field Guide for the Hunted & the Hunter, The Dead-Alive, The Live-Dead Ones, The…(Harbor Editions, 2024) is in direct communication with the ancient mythology of the wild hunt — Wilde Jagd, Wild Hunt, or Chase in German — in which supernatural/ghost riders are pursuing a target. Shanta Lee is the 2020 gubernatorial appointee to the Vermont Humanities Council’s board of directors. Her current multimedia exhibition, Dark Goddess: An Exploration of the Sacred Feminine, which features her short film, interviews, photography, and other items, has been exhibited at the Bennington Museum, University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum of Art, the Southern Vermont Arts Center. She has an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction and Poetry from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, an MBA from the University of Hartford, and an undergraduate degree in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from Trinity College. To learn more about her work, visit Shantalee.com
Veronica Njuguna is the President of the Westborough High School Poetry Club. She describes herself as passionate, bold, and giving. She genuinely believes her life-long journaling hobby laid the groundwork for her interest in poetry. As President, she plans weekly club meetings, chooses the poetry books to read, and facilitates conversation to deeply engage together. She also prepares the club for open mics and competitions so they can curate group poems that include each of our voices.
Veronica’s “Unveiled Voices: A Night of Authentic Expression” project is an event where surrounding poetry clubs come together for a spoken word poetry contest. Her goal is to create an environment where minority students have a safe space to be vulnerable, which encourages authenticity while nurturing a sense of belonging through the appreciation of each other’s stories.