Dr. Kerry James Evans, assistant professor of English, named the Honorable Mention Winner of The Backwaters Press Prize in Poetry/University of Nebraska Press. His manuscript, Nine Persimmons, will be published in spring 2026.
Dr. Kerry James Evans, assistant professor of English, named the Honorable Mention Winner of The Backwaters Press Prize in Poetry/University of Nebraska Press. His manuscript, Nine Persimmons, will be published in spring 2026.
Of Nine Persimmons, Judge Tomás Q. Morín said: “’I play it out measure by measure,’ writes Kerry James Evans. And those soulful measures are filled with a music that is unabashedly Southern. These poems are haunted, full of grit and down-home. They have no quit in them. If the great Harry Crews had written poetry, he might have written something like Evans’s Nine Persimmons.”
Kerry James Evans is also the author of Bangalore (Copper Canyon).
“Having moved a great many times in my life, ‘place’ has a significant role in my life,” said Evans. “After I was born, my father joined the Air Force and his first assignment was at Offutt Air Force Base. So many of my first memories, including the birth of my brother, took place in Nebraska, so when I found out Nine Persimmons was named Honorable Mention of the Backwaters Poetry Prize, I couldn’t have been happier. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone at the Backwaters/UNL Press for giving this collection a home.”