Lou Lipsitz, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has been awarded the 2010 Blue Lynx Prize for his poetry collection, If This World Falls Apart, his fourth full-length book of poems. The prize carries a $2,000 cash award, and publication by Lynx House Press, a Spokane- based independent literary publisher that began sponsoring this national manuscript competition in 1996.

Mr. Lipsitz’ first book, Cold Water, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 1967 and was widely admired for its crystalline imagery, its remarkable concision, and the freshness of its tones and metaphors. That book addressed, among other matters, the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, civil rights, and other issues that exploded during the late 1960’s. Many of the poems it contained were widely anthologized and admired. About his most recent book, Seeking the Hook, George Hitchcock wrote: "These are poems of clarity, wit and passion. The best of them are the equal of anything now being written in America."

The focus of Lipsitz’s work has shifted somewhat during his career. His new book combines the bold imagery of the earlier poems with quiet and deep reflection upon our inner struggles: loss, psychological change, the vagaries of fate, the ways in which we are unknown to ourselves, and issues faced particularly by men in our society. For many years a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, since 1995 Mr. Lipsitz has been a practicing psychotherapist, following in the footsteps of the great William Carlos Williams as a healer-poet. The book will be released in April, 2011.

Final judge for this year’s competition was Christopher Buckley. Previous judges:
Include Yusef Komunyakaa, David Wojahn, Robert Wrigley, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Dara Wier, and Dorianne Laux.