ABOUT
Brian Gyamfi is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Zell Fellowship at the University of Michigan, two Hopwood Awards, the Helen S. and John Wagner Prize, and the Michael R. Gutterman Award. He has been a finalist for the Poetry International Prize, the Oxford Poetry Prize, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, the Hopwood Drama Award, and the National Poetry Series.
Gyamfi graduated summa cum laude with honors from the University of Texas, earning his BA, and later received his MFA from the University of Michigan, where he was a merit scholar.
ABOUT
Brian Gyamfi is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, the Zell Fellowship at the University of Michigan, two Hopwood Awards, the Helen S. and John Wagner Prize, and the Michael R. Gutterman Award. He has been a finalist for the Poetry International Prize, the Oxford Poetry Prize, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, the Hopwood Drama Award, and the National Poetry Series.
Gyamfi graduated summa cum laude with honors from the University of Texas, earning his BA, and later received his MFA from the University of Michigan, where he was a merit scholar.
"We shall be riding dragons in those days
Black unicorns challenging the eagle
We shall shoot words
With hooves that kick clouds
Fire eaters from the sun
We shall lay the high white dome to siege
Cover screams with holy wings. In those days
We shall be terrible."
Henry Dumas
HONORS & AWARDS
2024 Puchcart Prize Winner (The Revival)
Finalist 2024 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize (What God in the Kingdom of Bastards, Chosen by Shara McCallum)
Finalist 2023 National Poetry Series
1st place Winner 2023 Hopwood Award Theodore Roethke Prize (Praxis of Breath, Chosen by Monica Youn)
Finalist 2023 Hopwood Drama Award (Everything Now, Chosen by Jeffry Chastang & Anita Gonzalez)
Finalist 2023 The Adroit Journal Gregory Djanikian Scholars
Finalist 2022 Poetry International Prize (A Night in Madina and The Tree Carries Water, Chosen by Kevin Prufer)
Shortlisted, Highly Commended 2022 Oxford Poetry Award (Horseradish, Chosen by Emily Berry)
1st place Winner 2022 Hopwood Graduate Poetry Award (What People Will Say, Chosen by Victoria Chang & Airea Matthews)
1st place Winner 2022 Michael R. Gutterman Award (An Argument with Dragons, Chosen by Katie Hartsock & Derrick Austin)
1st place Winner 2022 Helen S. and John Wagner Prize (What People Will Say, Chosen by 2022 Hopwood Committee)
2021-2023 Rackham Merit Scholar, University of Michigan
Runner-up 2021 Andrew Julius Gutow Poetry Prize (to Benin to Cape Verde to Côte D’Ivoire, Chosen by Kiki Petrosino)
1st place Winner 2020 UT Undergraduate Studies Writing Flag Award (Like Electricity Over the Makombo Village, Chosen by Texas ScholarWorks)
2019 McNair Scholar, University of Texas, Austin
2018 Benjamin Gilman International Scholar, Korea University
2016 Richard Greene Scholar