Reed Honored by Academy of American Poets
Gabriel Antonio Reed, teaching assistant professor in the English department, has been awarded the Academy of American Poets’ 2026 First Book Award for his debut collection of poems, Reach.
Gabriel Antonio Reed, teaching assistant professor in the English department, has been awarded the Academy of American Poets’ 2026 First Book Award. His book, titled Reach, is his debut collection of poems reconciling his experience of fatherhood, childhood, and the parallel narratives that happen when a family grows. His inspiration came from his own experience and reading life.
“All of us in English are incredibly proud that Gabriel has won this prestigious national award,” said Dawn Coleman, English department head. “It is an inspiration to our current students and will help us continue to recruit amazing talent to our graduate programs in creative writing.”
The Academy of American Poets’ First Book Award, established in 1975, was created to support emerging poets and help launch the publication of their debut collections. Previous award winners have gone on to make profound impacts in literature, with prestigious awards and honors in writing, publishing, teaching, and more.
“I had been discouraged for a long time, worried no one would see my book realized,” Reed said. “And this award—thanks to the Academy of American Poets and Graywolf Press, and also the support of my UT community—means my book will be here, and hopefully a great deal of poetry readers will see it.”
Reed was chosen as the recipient by Brenda Hillman, an award-winning poet of eleven full-length collections of poetry and chancellor emerita for the Academy of American Poets.
“Reach, a collection of interconnected notational pieces, displays both grandeur and intimacy,” Hillman said. “Form is explored by way of space on the page; lines are varied and energized by new thought, rendered with sparkling insight. This is a marvelous first book of poetry.”
Reed, who graduated from UT with a PhD in English with a Creative Dissertation in 2025, is from New Market, Tennessee. His work focuses on long-form and projectivist poetics and contemporary multi-generic literature, Reach is to be published on April 6, 2027, by Graywolf Press.
by Sloan Docekal