Gregory Pardlo : “Different Kind Of Derek Jeter” of Poetry

Conversations with Allan Wolper

The Poetry Foundation calls Gregory Pardlo, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “a different kind of Derek Jeter.” Pardlo is the second African American male poet to win the Pulitzer and the sixth African American poet overall to capture the highly coveted honor. Pulitzer judges praise Pardlo’s prize winning book, “Digest” as literature that is “rich with thought and ideas” and provides readers with a clear vision of the 21st Century. Pardlo’s prose also debunks the theory that African American fathers are disinterested parents. Pardlo is a teaching fellow of undergraduate writing at Columbia University. His work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Boston Review and the Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry.