A talk with 2017 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award recipient Vievee Francis in the Tufts poetry library at Claremont Graduate University. Vievee reflects on the challenges of being a women from Detroit living in the woods, the craft of writing poetry, and how poetry continues to thrive in the modern day.

One of the world’s most prestigious poetry awards, the Kingsley Tufts Award started at CGU in 1993. Kate Tufts established the award in memory of her husband, Kingsley, who held various executive positions in Los Angeles-area shipyards but also published poetry.

The Kingsley Tufts Award remains the largest annual monetary prize given to a single book of poetry by a mid-career poet, while the Kate Tufts Discovery Award was established a year later in recognition of a first volume of poetry by a promising poetic talent.