{"id":109973,"date":"2026-07-27T13:54:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=109973"},"modified":"2026-07-27T16:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T16:24:19","slug":"uri-africana-studies-professor-wins-2026-sillerman-first-book-prize-for-african-poets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/07\/uri-africana-studies-professor-wins-2026-sillerman-first-book-prize-for-african-poets\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 Africana studies professor wins 2026 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 27, 2026 \u2013 When 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of Africana studies Rachel (Afia) Ansong<\/a> began writing her poetic collection \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d five years ago, she traveled back to an emotional time when, as a 12-year-old, she emigrated from Ghana to the United States with her mother and sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ansong in penning her poem noted not just the experience of settling into a new land, but also grieving the loss of home\u2014knowing she wouldn\u2019t go back to Ghana for a long time. But her work also noted the resilience of that 12-year-old, continuing to explore thoughts through writing and overcoming the challenges of being an immigrant residing in a new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Ansong\u2019s inspirational work will be shared publicly. The African Poetry Book Fund recently awarded Ansong the 2026 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, given annually to an African poet who has not yet published a collection. Along with receiving a $1,000 award, Ansong\u2019s \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d\u2014supported in part by a Project Completion Grant by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Division of Research and Economic Development<\/a>\u2014will also be published as a book through the University of Nebraska Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am eternally grateful to the African Poetry Book Series for presenting me with the Sillerman Prize,\u201d Ansong said. \u201cWith that, now I have this book to share with the world on the experiences of being a Ghanaian immigrant and overcoming the challenges of leaving home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The title of Ansong\u2019s winning collection is derived from a quote noted in Edwidge Danticat\u2019s \u201cThe Farming of Bones,\u201d which chronicles the events of the 1937 Parsley Massacre\u2014a mass killing of more than 20,000 Haitians in the Dominican Republic. The poems within \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d reference the idea of grieving the loss of one\u2019s identity, she says, but also blending new identities as many enslaved Africans had to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing the collection that would become \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d allowed Ansong to sit with her thoughts and understand who she is and where she wanted to be in life, she said. Ansong, from Providence who teaches Contemporary African Poetry and Writing (AAF 462) within the 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Arts and Sciences<\/a>, hopes \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d can be an example for her students on how they can translate their lived experiences into poetry and add historical narratives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ansong, who earned both her MBA and Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing at 溏心vlog免费B站, speaks from experience. Ansong comes from a lineage of West African women who instilled in her the power of resilience and the audacity to pursue her dreams, she says. She also returns often to scripture as a way to meditate on and navigate life’s challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am constantly reminded to embrace the journey of pursuing a goal and to fail successfully many times before giving up. As an assistant professor juggling advising, teaching, research, writing, and service, I hold tightly to these lessons of resilience. Without them, I would not have made it this far,\u201d Ansong said. \u201cMy hope is that the students can take poetry as a bold step into reforming identities and understanding who they are as individuals in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone, regardless of race, individually has a story to tell, and people should be intentional on how one shares stories is what Ansong hopes the public can gain from reading her collection. She also says that if \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d is a person\u2019s first introduction to poetry, she hopes the readers will love the language within her work, and use it as a tool for expression and joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a book that takes readers to an emotional core of who we are as human beings. We are supposed to be united, no matter what. But sometimes, our differences keep us divided,\u201d Ansong said. \u201cWe should be celebrated for who we are and it is through our individuality that we need to find each other. It\u2019s the beauty of the human puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 27, 2026 \u2013 When 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of Africana studies Rachel (Afia) Ansong began writing her poetic collection \u201cI buried [her] in a field of lemongrass\u201d five years ago, she traveled back to an emotional time when, as a 12-year-old, she emigrated from Ghana to the United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":109974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,1908],"class_list":["post-109973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-faculty-excellence"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109990,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109973\/revisions\/109990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}