Texas State professor wins Medwick Memorial Award for poetry

Cecily Parks, an assistant professor in the Department of English at Texas State University, has been honored with the 2019 Lucille Medwick Memorial Award by the Poetry Society of America. 

Parks will receive her award during the 109th Annual Poetry Society of America Awards Ceremony on April 18 in New York. She will read her winning poem, “The Rio Grande,” during the event.

The Lucille Medwick Memorial Award was established by Maury Medwick in memory of his wife, recognizing original poems based on humanitarian themes. “The Rio Grande” calls to attention the issues surrounding the border wall while merging socioeconomic struggles with environmental impact.

“To date, my poems have focused on the natural world,” Parks said. “I felt that I had found a way to blend my ecological interests with a more explicit demonstration of how human and environmental fates are intertwined.”

Parks has been a member of the Poetry Society of America since 2005, when the association published her poetry chapbook Cold Work. It won the New York Poetry Chapbook Fellowship for that year, an award for poets under 30.

“The organization has a special place in my heart because of how much it supported my early career,” Parks said.