English Professor Named 2024 Wells College Press Chapbook Award Winner K. Avvirin Berlin was recognized for her manuscript ‘Obsidian.’

By Brian Laubscher
July 22, 2024

The Wells College Press announced that Washington and Lee Assistant Professor of English K. Avvirin Berlin won its 2024 Chapbook Contest for her manuscript “Obsidian.”

The contest included over 300 individual entries and “Obsidian” was selected by a panel of judges including Dan Rosenberg, chair of the Wells College English Department.

“Ultimately, Berlin’s ‘Obsidian’ won us over with its impressive field of allusions and references, deep historical and personal engagement and commitment to the potential of language to wake us,” Rosenberg said. “One reader responded by praising its ‘roving engagement with feminism, race, icons and touchpoints in history, art, and myth,’ and another celebrated the attention to “rich, musical sound” that shaped the poems.’”

Berlin’s poems have been widely published. Her debut collection, “Leda’s Daughters” was released by the Washington Writers’ Publishing House in October 2023. The collection received the publisher’s 2023 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize.

Berlin holds a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in American studies and ethnicity from the University of Southern California. She joined the W&L faculty in 2022.

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.