African-American literature

Poet Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African and African American Studies, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, has been selected — for the third time — as a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in poetry. Phillips was nominated for his 10th collection of poetry, “Speak Low,” published in April by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Rafia ZafarRafia Zafar, Ph.D., professor of English, of African & African American studies and of American culture studies, all in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture abroad during the 2007 spring semester. She has been awarded the distinguished Walt Whitman Chair, which includes teaching an advanced undergraduate course and a graduate seminar at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.