by Cheryl Smithem
College of Charleston Alumna Raena Shirali ’12 is one of the winners of the eminent “Discovery” / Boston Review Poetry Contest, an amazing accomplishment for a first-year MFA student. The prize includes publication in Boston Review and a reading at the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York, N.Y.
Shirali, who earned her Bachelor of Arts in English with a concentration in creative writing, attributes her achievement in part to the College. She says, the 
“College of Charleston is really where I began taking poetry seriously. I took eight Creative Writing workshops during my time at the College that helped me develop my craft, encouraged me to read both prose and poetry, and pushed me to take chances in my writing – which was vitally important to me. I was never discouraged from experimenting in either my poetry or fiction classes, and I have those professors to thank for the motivation to try something different every time I sit down to write.” Shirali is now enrolled in the Masters in Fine Arts (poetry) program The Ohio State University. Listen to her read her poem “the waves receded in december” on the Fogged Clarity poetry blog.
“Not only did Professor Emily Rosko introduce me to a wide range of contemporary poetry, but she was also instrumental to my graduate school application process,” Shirali explains. “She was eager to share her knowledge of various MFA programs and to work with me on narrowing down a list of schools to apply to. It’s probably safe to say that I wouldn’t have been where I am now without her. She’s also just a wonderful poet and a great friend.”
To Rosko, this award is not only a significant accomplishment for Raena at the start of her writing career, but is, in part, an accolade for the College’s English faculty. Rosko says, “All of us work exceedingly hard to graduate students who are skilled equally in critical thinking and literary theory alongside the creative, editorial, and rhetorical know-how that make a good writer.”
Rosko is “over the moon when a student succeeds like Raena has! For me, this is particularly sweet because I worked with Raena in four different courses, and in each class she pushed her writing in new directions.” She honors her student’s win by saying, “This “Discovery” / Boston Review Poetry prize is significant for Raena because she is still quite young in her writing career. To have been selected through the rigorous judging process by established poets, Timothy Donnelly, poetry editor at Boston Review, and Gregory Pardlo as preliminary judges; then, Juan Felipe Herrera, Eileen Myles, and Bruce Smith as final judges puts her name and poetry on the map for a readership to, quite literally, discover her work.”
Rosko says of Shirali’s work, “Her skill as poet is this – her painterly language and ability to sink emotion into the image, into objects, so that we feel or sense those resonances as we read.”
According to the 92Y Unterberg website, “Now in its sixth decade, the “Discovery” Poetry Contest is designed to attract large audiences to poets who have not yet published a book. For this sixth year, the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center is proud to partner with Boston Review.”
For more information about the College’s Concentration or Minor in Creative Writing, visit the Department of English’s website.
