Tiana Clark Named National Book Award Finalist for Poetry for ‘Scorched Earth’

Tiana Clark, Smith College’s Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence, has been named a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry for her new collection, Scorched Earth. Published earlier this year to wide critical acclaim, the book explores themes of race, gender, history, and belonging.

Upon learning she had been selected as a finalist, Clark said she “collapsed into a puddle of deep gratitude—all I could do was gasp in awe.” She added, “This incredible honor is a testimony and a reminder to keep trusting and chasing my own imagination with tenacity and delight. It’s a sentiment that I share each semester with my amazing students at Smith, as I hope to build up and encourage their own sense of creative autonomy while they cultivate their poems.”

“Tiana Clark’s Scorched Earth is a lyrical, luminous collection that speaks to the complexities of our time with honesty and grace,” said Daphne Lamothe, Smith’s provost and dean of the faculty. “Being named a finalist for the National Book Award honors the depth of her artistry and the impact of her voice. Her achievement reflects the creativity, intellect, and commitment to truth that thrive at Smith College.”

Reviewers have praised Scorched Earth for its emotional power and formal innovation. Clark’s poems weave personal narrative with broader social and historical insight, confronting the legacy of systemic injustice while also celebrating resilience and renewal. Her previous collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Kenyon Review, among others.

Considered one of the most prestigious literary honors in the United States, the National Book Awards recognize exceptional works of literature published each year across five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature. The five finalists in each category were announced October 7 and the winners will be named on November 19 at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony in New York.

In its announcement, The National Book Foundation noted that Scorched Earth (Washington Square Press, 2025) “examines institutional and historical suffering, while simultaneously exploring sensuality and embracing radical self-love as a queer Black woman.” Poet Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon, described the collection as “wonderfully dangerous,” praising Clark for her fearless exploration of Black womanhood and the poignant mirror world of grief, doubt, and displacement.