Quinnipiac University Professor Receives Prestigious Poetry Prize

Press release

HAMDEN, Conn. - Jason Koo, associate teaching professor of English and director of creative writing at Quinnipiac University, has received Utica University’s Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize for his book, “No Rest.”

The Nassar Poetry Prize is awarded to one upstate New York poet for their published poetry collection. The poems must be written in English, and the book must be at least 48 pages long to qualify for the $2,000 prize.

"I see ‘No Rest’ as my most ambitious, personal and experimental book to date," Koo said. "My challenge for the book was to write long poems that did not seem long to readers, that were accessible and engaging and enacted the way the mind moves. For the book to receive this prize is deeply gratifying because it confirms that the book is working in the way that I hoped it would.”
The annual contest is named in memory of Eugene Paul Nassar, professor emeritus of English at Utica University, who passed away in 2017.

Koo, a resident of Beacon, New York, read his poetry on Thursday, April 17, at 7:00 p.m. in Wilcox Center on Utica University’s main campus.

“No Rest” is Koo’s fourth full-length poetry collection. Published on May 24 by Diode Editions as the winner of its book contest, "No Rest" marks a significant achievement in Koo’s career as a poet and educator.

Koo is the author of three previous full-length collections of poetry: "More Than Mere Light," "America's Favorite Poem” and "Man on Extremely Small Island," which won the De Novo Poetry Prize and the Asian American Writers' Workshop Members' Choice Award for the best Asian American book of 2009. He is also the author of the chapbook "Sunset Park" and co-editor of the “Brooklyn Poets Anthology.”

His poems have appeared in esteemed publications such as the American Scholar, Best American Poetry, Missouri Review, Poetry Northwest, Village Voice and Yale Review, among others. Koo’s literary contributions have been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center and New York State Writers Institute.

Named one of the "100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture" by Brooklyn Magazine, Koo is also the founder of the nonprofit Brooklyn Poets and served as its first executive director from 2012 to 2024.