Global Poetry Prize, Europe Winner: "The Death of Jean Charles de Menezes" by Carlos A. Pittella

We’re so excited to share this poem by Carlos A. Pittella, the 2022 Global Poetry Prize winner for the region of Europe. About Carlos’s poem, the judge Aria Aber writes, “The winning poem, “The death of Jean Charles de Menezes” is exigent, surprising. The speaker moves swiftly, possessed by a kind of duende, lapping me up like debris in the eye of a hurricane. The addendum’s lyric reckoning adds a texture of tenderness to the impossible condition of exile and state-sanctioned violence. The voice seethes and riots; it is ravenous with grief. Of all the finalists, this was the voice that haunted me.” 

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