Chicago, Illinois, USA: Indian-origin writer and scholar Kazim Ali has been chosen as the winner of the 2025 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism, an honor presented by the Poetry Foundation.

Born in the United Kingdom to Muslim parents of Indian heritage, Ali received the award for his book "Black Buffalo Woman: An Introduction to the Poetry and Poetics of Lucille Clifton." The work was commended for its in-depth exploration of Clifton's poetry, highlighting its "formal variety, powerful clarity, and spiritual resonance."

The Pegasus Award, which includes a cash prize of $10,000, is presented annually to recognize the best book-length study of poetry criticism published in the United States in the previous year.

Alongside Ali, two other honorees were named: Rigoberto Gonzalez, recipient of the 2025 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and Amy Stolls, who received the 2025 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry. All three will be celebrated at the Pegasus Awards ceremony in Chicago this October, followed by a free public poetry reading at the Foundation on October 24.

Michelle T. Boone, president and CEO of the Poetry Foundation, said, "It is our great privilege to honor Rigoberto Gonzalez, Amy Stolls, and Kazim Ali, whose commitment to poetry continues to inspire and enrich communities worldwide."

Ali has published six poetry collections, including "The Far Mosque," which earned the New England/New York Award from Alice James Books. He is also the author of six prose works, among them "Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water," which won the Banff Mountain Book Award in Environmental Literature.

Currently, Ali is a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of California, San Diego. Over the years, he has lived and worked in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East.