Brooklyn author Vijay Seshadri wins Pulitzer Prize in poetry

April 15, 2014 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Poet Vijay Seshadri

Share this:

Brooklyn resident Vijay Seshadri has been chosen as the winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his collection “3 Sections” (Graywolf Press). The announcement was made on Monday.

Seshadri, who lives in Carroll Gardens with his wife and son, teaches poetry and nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville.

The award committee called Seshadri’s “3 Sections” a “compelling collection of poems that examine human consciousness, from birth to dementia, in a voice that is by turns witty and grave, compassionate and remorseless.”

First I had three

apocalyptic visions, each more terrible than the last.

The graves open, and the sea rises to kill us all.

Then the doorbell rang, and I went downstairs and signed for two packages—

—from “This Morning,” courtesy of Graywolf Press

Seshadri was born in Bangalore, India, in 1954, He moved to America at the age of five, and grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where his father taught chemistry at Ohio State University.

He has lived in the Pacific Northwest, where he spent worked for five years fishing and logging, and on the Upper West Side. He moved to Carroll Gardens in 1986, according to an interview published in Brooklyn Poets.

According to Graywolf Press, Seshadri is first Asian American to win the prize in this category.

His collections of poems include James Laughlin Award winner “The Long Meadow” (Graywolf Press, 2004) and “Wild Kingdom” (1996). His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including Antaeus, Lumina, The New Yorker, Paris Review, the Times Book Review and in many anthologies, including “The Best American Poetry 1997” and “The Best American Poetry 2003.” He has received numerous grants and awards, including the Paris Review’s Bernard F. Conners Long Poem Prize and the MacDowell Colony’s Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement.

Seshadri holds an A.B. degree from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. from Columbia University.