Weijia Pan wins 2023 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize

Ibrahim Badshah

We are thrilled to announce that Weijia Pan is the winner of the 2023 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. His manuscript, titled Motherlands, was selected by judge Louise Glück and will be published in September 2024. In addition to publication, Weijia Pan will receive $10,000.

We at Milkweed Editions are deeply saddened by the loss of Louise Glück, a deeply generous and prolific member of the literary community. Glück worked closely with our team to select Motherlands, and with Weijia Pan to develop the manuscript. Her attention and care to this process is emblematic of her brilliance as a poet and her dedication as a mentor and literary citizen. We are honored to continue her work by publishing her selection in 2024.

Weijia Pan is a poet and translator from Shanghai, China. His poems have appeared in AGNI, Boulevard, Copper Nickel, Georgia Review, New Ohio Review, Ninth Letter, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. He is a third-year MFA student at the University of Houston, where he is a winner of the Paul Verlaine Prize in Poetry.

“These elegant poems reflect a mind deeply concerned with the ripples of history, the ties between people, and the power of art to impact both. Weijia Pan’s debut is as imaginative as it is philosophical, as adroit as it is earnest. It is abundantly clear to me why Louise Glück selected it for the prize.”—Daniel Slager, Publisher & CEO

Thank you to the Alan B. Slifka Foundation and its president, Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka, for supporting the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize.

MAX RITVO’S LEGACY

“All poets are heroes. Your book is your hero story. Take your reader on an adventure.”
—Max Ritvo

Max came into our life at Milkweed Editions in May 2016 and quickly became our hero. Although he passed away just four months later, our experience publishing Four Reincarnations has underscored what it means to champion writers who are our heroes. We are delighted and deeply honored to celebrate Max’s legacy with this prize, and to continue publishing outstanding emerging poets. Thank you to the Alan B. Slifka Foundation and its president, Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka, for supporting the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize.

Previous Max Ritvo Poetry Prize winners include Winter Stranger by Jackson Holbert, Human Resources by Ryann Stevenson, Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs, The Clearing by Allison Adair, The Milk Hours by John James, and North American Stadiums by Grady Chambers.

Learn more about the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize and our poetry prizes here.