Alena's Awards and Honors

1. Publication in the W.W. Norton anthology: Angles of Ascent: Contemporary African American Poetry

2. Winner, Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Prize, Persea Books/W.W. Norton

3. Publication of The Logan Topographies (Persea Books, 2007)

4. Textbook Reviewer Badge, College Open Textbooks

5. New Student Scholarship, Saybrook University

6. Finalist, Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award (2008)

7. Finalist, Weatherford Award for Best Non-Fiction Writing on Appalachia (2008)

8. Volunteers for Peace Travel Scholarship – Arabic/French/English exchange with family and international participants in Rabat, Morocco

9. Cave Canem Fellowship in Poetry – worked with Yusef Komunyakka, Elizabeth Alexander, Erica Hunt

10. Finalist, Rona Jaffe Foundation Writing Award

11. Selected Winner, Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Award, Bear Star Press

12. Teacher of the Year Nominee, Solano College (twice)

13. Finalist, Frith Press Open Poetry Chapbook Competition

14. Fellowship in Poetry (Top Prize), Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

15. Flash Fiction Contest Winner, Doorknobs & BodyPaint

16. Zora Neale Hurston Scholar, Naropa University Summer Writing Program (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics)

17. John Hawkes Memorial Prize in Fiction, Brown University

18. Departmental Honors, Guilford College

19. Leora Sherrill O’Callaghan Scholarship for Excellence in English, Guilford College

20. Honorable Mention for Writing in the Humanities, Guilford College

21. Certificate of Achievement in African American Studies, Guilford College

22. Presidential Scholarship, Guilford College

23. Dean’s List, Guilford College

24. Graduation Speaker (female selection), Guilford College