Justin Phillip Reed, a former junior writer-in-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the 2018 National Book Award for Poetry for his collection, Indecency (Coffee House Press, 2018).
“Reed’s visceral and teasingly cerebral debut probes Black identity, sexuality, and violence and is inseparably personal and political,” Publisher’s Weekly wrote upon the volume’s release. “He displays a searing sense of injustice about dehumanizing systems, and his speakers evoke the quotidian with formidable eloquence .”
Reed holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Tusculum College in Greenville, Tennessee, and a master of fine arts degree from the writing program at Washington University in St. Louis.
