Poet Sara Daniele Rivera wins First Book Award

NEW YORK (AP) — A Cuban-Peruvian poet from New Mexico has won the Academy of American Poets’ First Book Award. Sara Daniele Rivera will receive $5,000, a six-week residency at an artist community in Italy and a book deal with Graywolf Press, which next year will publish her debut collection “The Blue Mimes.” Poet Eduardo C. Corral chose Rivera’s manuscript for the first book prize. In a statement Monday, he praised Rivera for her “beautifully and deftly crafted” poems, and her compelling evocation of grief, notably over the death of her father. Rivera is a writer, artist and translator who lives in Albuquerque.