Poet Blas Manuel De Luna is among five finalists in poetry for the National Book Critics Circle Award for his debut collection "Bent to the Earth," which was published by the Carnegie Mellon University Press. This is the first time that a book published by the university press has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, one of publishing's highest honors.
De Luna's poems tell the story of the hardscrabble lives of immigrant workers. De Luna was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and raised in Madera, Calif. He teaches high school English in California.
"Blas Manuel De Luna is a young poet with great potential who Carnegie Mellon University Press has been pleased to publish. His 'Bent to the Earth' was one of two manuscripts selected from nearly 500 that were submitted to the press during the fall of 2004," said English Professor Gerald Costanzo, who runs the press.
"The National Book Critics Circle citation brings great honor to this well-deserving writer as well as to the press. I also want to commend the students in my Editing and Publishing class who were instrumental to the selection of Blas' book," Costanzo said.
In 1986, Carnegie Mellon published poet Rita Dove's "Thomas and Beulah," which was awarded the Pulitzer the following year. In addition, three of the past five Pulitzer Prize winners for poetry, including U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser, either started or spent some portion of their careers with the university press.
Costanzo founded the Carnegie Mellon University Press 30 years ago, and he is assisted each year by five to seven student interns from his Editing and Publishing course. Those students—many of whom have gone on to careers in publishing—work at every stage of the publishing process, and they help Costanzo choose the 20 titles he publishes each year from among the hundreds of manuscripts he receives.
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Carnegie Mellon University Press
English Department
National Book Critics Circle Award
