W&L’s K. Avvirin Gray Awarded Jean Feldman Poetry Prize Avvirin Gray, assistant professor of English at Washington and Lee University, is the winner of the 2023 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize.

By: W&L News Office
April 7, 2023

Avvirin Gray, assistant professor of English at Washington and Lee University, has been awarded The Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s 2023 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize for her poetry collection, “Leda’s Daughters.”

The Washington Writers’ Publishing House is one of the oldest and most esteemed nonprofit, cooperative literary organizations in Washington D.C., and their Jean Feldman Poetry Prize was established through a donation by Feldman in memory of her lifelong friendship with Dotti Warren. The award includes a $1,500 prize, launch support and publication by The Washington Writers’ Publishing House in October 2023.

Gray is a poet and scholar with a focus in Native American literature. Her poetry collection, “Leda’s Daughters,” is a tribute to the lives and labors of 19th- and early 20th-century African American migrant women, as well as Indigenous and African-descended women, caught up in the conflicts of the Atlantic world. This collection also won an honorable mention in the 2021 Chad Walsh Chapbook Contest.

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