A publication by Toi Derricotte, professor emerita in the Department of English within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has been named a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry. 

Derricotte’s "'I': New and Selected Poems" is a retrospective volume of work that includes more than 30 new poems and selections from five of Derricotte’s previously published poetry books. It was published in 2019 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Since 1950, the National Book Awards have celebrated the best writing in America, and currently honors the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature published every year.

Derricotte is also the co-founder of Cave Canem, a national poetry organization that cultivates “the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.”