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The University of Guam Press was recently awarded an Equity in Verse grant from the Poetry Foundation.
The grant seeks to celebrate the legacy of past Black, Indigenous, and people of color poets in part by providing financial support to nonprofit poetry and literary organizations led and staffed by people of color.
The program proved to be competitive with nearly 250 proposal applications submitted but only 39 awardees. UOG Press was awarded $65,000 — one of the highest awards granted this cycle.
UOG Press will use the award to fund its Famalao’an Poets Project, which will provide editing, marketing, and distribution services to two indigenous CHamoru poets.
"We are very excited about this opportunity to center the voices and experiences of CHamoru women as expressed through their powerful poetry," says UOG Press Publishing Director Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero. "We hope the publications that emerge from this project will inspire young writers to share their stories and visions of the future."
The project will directly address the dearth of female-authored poetry collections and the severely underrepresented voices of CHamoru poets, in addition to expanding the publishing house’s literary offerings. To supplement the Famalao’an Poets Project, UOG Press will provide creative writing workshops and retreats to encourage more writing within the community.
