Chaun Ballard’s full-length collection, Second Nature, was selected by Matthew Shenoda as the recipient of the 23rd Annual A. Poulin, Jr. Prize. Second Nature will be published by BOA Editions in April 2025 as part of the New Poets of America Series.

Of the collection, Matthew Shenoda writes:

“In a year with so many incredible submissions that showcase the great range of contemporary poetry, to choose just one manuscript was far from easy, but Chaun Ballard’s Second Nature stood out as a work of serious engagement with craft and music and a considered range of myriad aesthetics. Braiding together the unencumbered memories of family lineage and African American history, Second Nature explores what it means to be shaped by others, to make a way in the world carrying the pieces of the imperfect men and women who brought us to this moment. Ballard’s poems speak to the idea of a continuum, articulating the life of the poet on his own terms without forgetfulness or a simple investment in the fragmented lie of the individual. These are poems of community and history, of the collision of time, of what it means to live in ancestry and in the particulars of place.”