09/11/2026
Dr. Caki Wilkinson, professor of English and director of creative writing at Rhodes College, is the recipient of the 2026 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, presented by the Sewanee Review at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. She will be honored at a celebration in October at the college, which will include lectures on her poetry by writers Alice Bolin and Daniel Hornsby.
Since 1987, the Sewanee Review has recognized a distinguished poet for achievement and exceptional work with the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry. The award has celebrated notable poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Howard Nemerov, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, and Jericho Brown.
A 2003 graduate of Rhodes, Wilkinson earned an MFA in poetry from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of several poetry collections including Circles Where the Head Should Be, The Wynona Stone Poems, and The Survival Expo. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, The Atlantic, Kenyon Review, and many other publications.
Wilkinson has received multiple awards for her poetry including the Lexi Rudnitsky/Editor’s Choice Award, the Vassar Miller Prize, and the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Fellowship. In 2025, she was honored with Rhodes’ Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, one of the highest honors bestowed upon faculty.
