Jessica Cuello named winnner of 2023 Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize

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Jessica Cuello named winnner of 2023 Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize

Black and White image of Jessica Cuello in leather jacket, smiling, walking through woodded area.

The Nassar Poetry Prize is awarded to one upstate New York poet for their published collection of works.

The winner of this year’s Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize at Utica University is Jessica Cuello, with her book, “Liar.”

Published by VBarrow Street Press, Liar is a collection of poetry that has been called "A highly original vision, voice, concept, style, language and image all working together to produce a world inside our world. Filled with fire and violence, mystery and magic, the loneliness of laundromats, rented houses, suicide, cornfields, hunger, and ultimately a naked raw survival, 'charred walls pulled back from the frame."

A multiple award winner for her poetry and books, Jessica is poetry editor at Tahoma Literary Review and teaches French in Central New York.

The Nassar Poetry Prize is awarded to one upstate New York poet for their published collection of works. The poems must be written in English, and the book must be at least 48 pages long in order to qualify for the $2,000 prize.

The annual contest is named in memory of Eugene Paul Nassar, professor emeritus of English at Utica, who passed away in April of 2017 at the age of 81.

Jessica will read from her works on Thursday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Hislop Auditorium.