Whitman English professor selected as a finalist in 2012 Washington State Book Awards

Katrina Roberts

Katrina Roberts’ book of poetry, “Underdog” (University of Washington Press 2011), has been named a finalist in the 2012 Washington State Book Awards.

Roberts is the Mina Schwabacher Professor in English and the Humanities. “Underdog” is her fourth book of poetry, and the third of her books nominated for the Washington State Book Awards.

“Katrina's colleagues in the English Department are delighted that ‘Underdog’ has been recognized as a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards,” said Theresa M. DiPasquale, English professor and department chair.

“When I first read the book, the poem called ‘Drone and Buck’ was a revelation; it hit me head on and wrapped around me… These are poems that everyone at Whitman should read.”

This is the 45th year of the Book Awards program, formerly called the Governor's Writers Awards. Each year, the Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book selects six outstanding books published by Washington authors. A book award is given based on the strength of the publication's literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality.

According to Roberts’ website, “‘Underdog draws on wide-ranging historical and cultural sources to consider questions of identity, to ask us to meditate on how each of us is “other” - native, immigrant, sojourner, alien – and to examine our at-once shared and foreign frontiers and margins.”

Roberts’ work has appeared in anthologies such as “The Pushcart Prize Anthology,” “The Best American Poetry,” “The Bread Loaf Anthology of New American Poets,” “Contemporary Northwest Poets,” “Life on the Line,” and “Never Before: Poems About First Experiences.”

She also is the director of Whitman’s popular Visiting Writers Reading Series , which brings acclaimed poets and authors to campus for public lectures and classroom visits.