- Poet and T&G features editor Victor Infante has been named this year's Stanley Kunitz Medal winner
- The award is given to a poet with a strong Worcester County connection who best exemplifies Kunitz's commitment to nurturing poetry
- Kunitz (1905-2006) was born in Worcester and won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry
WORCESTER — When editor, journalist, poet and author Victor D. Infante learned he was this year's Stanley Kunitz Medal winner, he said he kept rereading the email to make sure he was understanding it correctly.
"I kept thinking I was one, maybe one, of the nominees and someone else was winning," he said. "I am completely and utterly gobsmacked by the honor."
The Stanley Kunitz Medal is presented annually by the Worcester County Poetry Association to "a poet with a strong Worcester County connection who best exemplifies Kunitz’s lifelong commitment to poetry by teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations which nurture poetry."
The association made the announcement May 9 in a news release that also announced others honored with nominations this year including poets Bill Tremblay, Robert Eugene Perry, Damary Rosado, Margaret Smith and longtime poetry supporter and conservator of the Stanley Kunitz Childhood Home Carol Stockmal.
Kunitz (1905-2006) was born in Worcester and grew up at 4 Woodford St. off Providence Street on Worcester's East side.He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for "Selected Poems 1928-1958" and later was named by the Library of Congress as poet laureate.He lived many years in New York City and Provincetown, but frequently returned to Worcester for visits and poetry readings. The Stanley Kunitz Medal originated with a bequest to the Worcester County Poetry Association from his estate. The first recipient was the late poet, activist and Assumption University professor Michael D. True in 2015. The association seeks letters of nomination each year that are considered by the Stanley Kunitz Medal Committee, which awards the prize.
“I have no idea who nominated me, but I’m extremely grateful," Infante said. "Writing is a weird life. You can go a long time — decades really — scribbling away with only the slimmest idea if anyone is really reading or paying attention and then you get these moments when it’s suddenly clear that people were indeed paying attention. It’s a humbling experience. The sense of gratitude is almost overwhelming.”
Kunitz and Infante have a Worcester Telegram connection. Infante is features editor for the Telegram & Gazette and the editor of Worcester Magazine. He started working for the Telegram & Gazette in 2002. During an interview with the T&Gat his house in Provincetown just before his 100th birthday, July 29, 2005, Kunitz pointed out that his first job was as a reporter with the Worcester Telegram. One of his Telegram assignments was covering the Sacco and Vanzetti trial in 1927.
Infante is having an exceptional year. In March, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Worcester Music Awards.
Infante's poetry has appeared in numerous publications and his first full-length poetry collection "City of Insomnia" was published by Write Bloody Publishing in 2008. His latest book,the poetic novella "Suffer for This: Love, Sex, Marriage & Rock n’ Roll," was published by Moontide Press in 2024.
He has founded literary and political journals such as The November 3rd Club and Radius, which the WCPA said "featured poetry and essays from local and globally recognized poets and writers." Infante is frequently featured in poetry readings, radio programs and discussions both locally and nationally. He has also provided writing workshops, most recently an online workshop called “Breaking the Rules (of Writing)” for Poetry Salon.
While he was not born in Worcester, Infante said he feels a very strong connection with the city and its poetry scene as well as Kunitz. He was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Southern California, but has resided in Worcester with his wife, poet and artist Lea C. Deschenes, for many years. “I had already graduated college and started a writing career when I first visited Worcester in 1996. I was living in California and was in a long-distance relationship with my now wife," he said. "That trip I did my first poetry reading on the East Coast in Worcester at the old Eleni’s Midnite Cafe and the crowd was so fun and welcoming, and the poetry was so good, I fell in love with the city instantly. By December I had moved here.”Infante noted that the late poet Richard Fox used to say, "‘Worcester provoked me to poetry,’ and I agree. It has a way of doing that. There’s something about this city, about its history and contradictions, that breeds amazing poets and attracts poets from all over.
"Kunitz pretty much started that. He obviously didn’t live here his entire life, but he was such a powerhouse of a writer and such a grounded one. You can see the influence he had on the modernists, the confessional poets and even the local slam poets. If you’re writing poetry in Worcester, you’re standing in his shadow, whether you realize it or not. To be given an honor in his name is both gratifying to me as a writer, but also as a Worcesterite.”
Infante will receive the Stanley Kunitz Medal at a ceremony presented by the Worcester County Poetry Association from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. July 31 at the Museum of Worcester, 30 Elm St. The event is free.
