Rebecca Gayle Howell, associate professor of poetry and translation in the Department of English's M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation, has been awarded the 2025 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. 

The award has been presented since 1987 by The Sewanee Review literary magazine. Their editors note the Aiken Taylor Award "has honored a distinguished poet in the maturity of their career. … Established by the physician and poet K.P.A. Taylor in honor of his elder brother, the modernist poet and story writer Conrad Aiken, the Aiken Taylor Award has celebrated poets such as Howard Nemerov, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wendell Berry, Louise Glück and Billy Collins."         

"This award, one of many in an accruing list of notable honors, is a testament to Rebecca's prowess as a talented and multifaceted poet and translator. We are fortunate to have her as a peer and teacher in the English Department," notes Dr. Yajaira Padilla, chair of the Department of English.

Howell, who joined the faculty of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation in 2022, is a writer, literary translator, librettist and editor. Her books include two novels in verse — Render / An Apocalypse and American Purgatory — both of which were named Bestsellers of the Decade by Small Press Distribution. She translated Patagonia poet Claudia Prado's El Interior de la Ballena and Amal al-Jubouri's Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation. Howell's work has received critical acclaim from such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, Poetry London, Publisher's Weekly and the Kenyon Review. In addition to her work at the U of A, she also serves on faculty for the University of the South's Sewanee School of Letters. From 2014 to 2024, she was the poetry editor for the Oxford American. Her sixth book, Erase Genesis, will be released this November by Project Poëtica/Bridwell Press.     

"To see Rebecca's name among this list of luminary poets seems just right. She's too humble to say this award is well earned, but it is. Everyone in the program is so proud of this accomplishment, this recognition of her important work," said Toni Jensen, director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation. 

Per the magazine's press release regarding the award, University of the South Vice Chancellor Dr. Robert Pearigen and Sewanee Review editor Adam Ross will present Howell with the Aiken Taylor Award this October at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. As part of this year's award celebration, poet Corey Van Landingham will lecture on Howell's poetry. 

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About the U of A M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation: For over 50 years, the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation has served as a preeminent training ground for some of the nation's best writers. Established in 1966, ours is one of the oldest M.F.A. programs in the nation and one of the most innovative, offering degree tracks in poetry, fiction, and literary translation.