Naffis-Sahely wins Cholmondeley Award

Professor André Naffis-Sahely has received a prestigious Cholmondeley Award from the UK’s Society of Authors. The Cholmondeley Awards for Poets were founded by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966 to recognize the lifetime achievement and distinction of individual poets. Notable past recipients include Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Lawrence Durrell, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Carol Ann Duffy and John Burnside. One of the judges, Fred D’Aguiar, spoke of the significance of the award: “Poets confess to weeping when they hear that they won a Cholmondeley Award. They consider the award to be the highest achievement of their writing lives. There isn’t a t-shirt that says ‘I won a Cholmondeley’ or a tattoo or a tote bag or a brand of tea or coffee, but the honorific is emblazoned on the souls of all who have been graced with it.” Congratulations, André!