Harryette Mullen, an associate professor of English and African American Studies at UCLA, has been selected as a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award in Poetry for her poetry collection “Sleeping With the Dictionary� (UC Press).

Mullen was the only Southern California resident selected among the five poetry finalists and 15 finalists in other categories (fiction, nonfiction and young people’s literature).

As the nation’s preeminent literary prize, the National Book Award recognizes books of exceptional merit written by Americans. Winners will be selected at a Nov. 20 ceremony in New York City.

“Sleeping With the Dictionary,� which was hailed earlier this year as “a breakthrough� by Publisher’s Weekly, takes inspiration from all manner of wordplay: acrostic, anagram, homophone, parody and pun. Random word-replacement games pioneered by the international literary avant-garde group Oulipo also influenced some of the collection’s 57 poems.

But even Mullen’s most avant-garde poems hark back to her African-American heritage by mining word play from such unlikely sources as the Ebonics debate and long-forgotten African-American courtship rituals.

The playful posture represents something of a departure for Mullen, who earned a reputation for tackling such weighty themes as identity politics and commercialism in her earlier collections of poetry.

She is also the author of “Tree Tall Woman� (Energy Earth Communications, 1981), “Trimmings� (Tender Button Books, 1991), “S*PeRM**K*T� (Singing Horse Press, 1992), “Muse & Drudge� (Singing Horse Press, 1995) and “Blues Baby: Early Poems� (Bucknell University Press, 2002). In addition, Mullen’s poetry was included in the 1994 and 2001 volumes of “The Best American Poetry� (Scribner).

A recipient of a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship from the University of Texas and the Texas Institute of Letters, an Artist Grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, a
Susan B. Anthony Fellowship at the University of Rochester, and the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Poetry, Mullen has taught in the Poets in the Schools Program in Texas and has served on the faculty of Cave Canem, a workshop for African-American poets.

In announcing Mullen’s selection, the National Book Foundation said, “Harryette Mullen’s alphabetically arranged poems stir new perspectives on the words we use.�

Past recipients of the National Book Award in Poetry include Robert Penn Warren, Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg and Adrienne Rich.