Award-Winning Scholar | Prof | PoetWinner, 2025 River Heron Editors’ Prizefor the poem “Independence Night” Recent Recognition Honorable Mention for Green Linden Press’s 2026 Wishing Jewel Prize for poetic innovation Finalist for the 2025 Palette Poetry Prize (open theme) Finalist for the 2025 Palette Nature Poetry Prize Finalist for the 2025 Black Warrior Review Fiction Contest Books WINNER – 2017 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion, awarded by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion at the 2017 American Anthropological Association Annual MeetingHONORABLE MENTION – 2019 Barbara T. Christian Literary Award, given by the Caribbean Studies AssociationFINALIST – 2017 Albert J. Raboteau Prize for the Best Book in Africana Religions, presented by Journal of Africana Religions WINNER – 2024 (inaugural) Leonard Norman Primiano Book Prize on Vernacular Catholicism, awarded by the American Folklore Society
