The End of America Poetry Award is given by me, occasionally, just because I feel like it. It confers no authority or monetary benefit upon the awardee, and it represents no more than my personal opinion. The goal however is laudatory: to highlight books which explore the neglected or forgotten undersides of American poetry and life, books which explore or come from the strange corners and dreams of American behavior and its consequences, or that take on topics that, on their surface, do not seem like they could offer any kind of edification or value, yet nonetheless they do.
These books are often remarkable for the surprise they bring to the well-trodden gardens of American poetry, and no book of poetry I read in 2024 surprised me more than Mole Fizz (2007-12) by Michael Ball (RIP), a poet, literary organizer, and sporadic part-time laborer based in Baltimore and who passed away in 2015. Mole Fizz deserves The End of America Poetry Award as much as any book I can think of. It was published by Lack Mountain, the publishing project of Zero Degree Writing Program.
Copies of Mole Fizz can be found here:
https://zerodegreewritingprogram.com/?p=56
