Lakeland College Fessler Professor Karl Elder’s manuscript, Gilgamesh at the Bellagio, has been awarded a publication contract as a runner up in The National Poetry Review Prize Book Series. The volume—not to be confused with his recently published long poem by the same name in Black Warrior Review—is scheduled to appear in 2007 or early 2008.
Conceived as a trilogy, the first section of the manuscript, Mead (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize), is followed by Gilgamesh at the Bellagio and Z Ain’t Just for Zabecedarium (portions of which received the Chad Walsh Award from Beloit Poetry Journal).
“This is a dream,” Elder said of the latest award, “one that I rarely dared to share for fear that I’d jinx the book, the joy of the years I’ve had working on it, which came to an abrupt halt during my sabbatical last spring when I’d completed the effort. For the last couple of days I’ve been pinching myself to be certain I’m awake.”