The National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, established in 1975, [1] is an annual American literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". [2] Awards are presented annually to books published in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir/Autobiography, Biography, and Criticism. [3]
Books previously published in English are not eligible, such as re-issues and paperback editions. They do consider "translations, short story and essay collections, self-published books, and any titles that fall under the general categories".
The judges are the volunteer directors of the NBCC, who are 24 members serving rotating three-year terms, with eight elected annually by the voting members, namely "professional book review editors and book reviewers". [4] Winners of the awards are announced each year at the NBCC awards ceremony in conjunction with the yearly membership meeting, which takes place in March.
Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1975 | John Ashbery | Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror | Winner | [5] |
1976 | Elizabeth Bishop | Geography III | Winner | [6] |
Philip Levine | The Names of the Lost | |||
Muriel Rukeyser | The Gates | |||
Louis Simpson | Searching for the Ox | |||
Richard Wilbur | The Mind-Reader | |||
1977 | Robert Lowell | Day by Day | Winner | [7] |
John Ashbery | Houseboat Days | |||
Stanley Plumly | Out-of-the-Body Travel | |||
W.D. Snodgrass | The Fuhrer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress | |||
Gerald Stern | Lucky Life | |||
1978 | L. E. Sissman | Hello, Darkness: The Collected Poems of L. E. Sissman | Winner | [8] |
Adrienne Rich | The Dream of a Common Language: Poems, 1974-1977 | |||
Mark Strand | The Late Hour | |||
May Swenson | New & Selected Things Taking Place | |||
John Hollander | Spectral Emanations: New and Selected Poems | |||
1979 | Philip Levine | Ashes: Poems New and Old and 7 Years From Somewhere | Winner | |
Anthony Hecht | The Venetian Vespers | |||
John Hollander | Blue Wine and Other Poems | |||
David Smith | Goshawk, Antelope | |||
Howard Moss | Notes From the Castle | |||
1980 | Frederick Seidel | Sunrise | Winner | [9] |
Joseph Brodsky | A Part of Speech | |||
Robert Penn Warren | Being Here: Poetry, 1977-1980 | |||
James Schuyler | The Morning of the Poem | |||
James Merrill | Scripts for the Pageant | |||
1981 | A.R. Ammons | A Coast of Trees | Winner | |
Douglas Crase | The Revisionist | |||
Daniel Hoffman | Brotherly Love | |||
Donald Finkel | What Manner of Beast | |||
Edward Hirsch | The Sleepwalkers | |||
1982 | Katha Pollitt | Antarctic Traveler | Winner | [10] |
Jack Gilbert | Monoliths: Poems, 1962 and 1982 | |||
Brad Leithauser | Hundreds of Fireflies | |||
Phyllis Janowitz | Visiting Rites | |||
W.S. Merwin | Finding the Islands | |||
1983 | James Merrill | The Changing Light at Sandover | Winner | |
Jorie Graham | Erosion | |||
Amy Clampitt | The Kingfisher | |||
Cathy Song | Picture Bride | |||
C.K. Williams | Tar | |||
1984 | Sharon Olds | The Dead and the Living | Winner | [11] |
Robert Duncan | Ground Work: Before the War | |||
Charles Wright | The Other Side of the River | |||
Dick Allen | Overnight in the Guest House of the Mystic | |||
John Ashbery | A Wave | |||
1985 | Louise Glück | The Triumph of Achilles | Winner | |
Amy Clampitt | What the Light Was Like | |||
Gjertude Schnackenberg | The Lamplit Answer | |||
Galway Kinnell | The Past | |||
James Merrill | Late Settings | |||
1986 | Edward Hirsch | Wild Gratitude | Winner | [12] |
Irving Feldman | All of Us Here and Other Poems | |||
Brad Leithauser | Cats of the Temple | |||
Timothy Steele | Sapphics Against Anger | |||
Anne Winters | The Key to the City | |||
1987 | C.K. Williams | Flesh and Blood | Winner | |
John Ashbery | April Galleons | |||
Alan Shapiro | Happy Hour | |||
May Swenson | In Other Words | |||
Donald Justice | The Sunset Maker | |||
1988 | Donald Hall | The One Day | Winner | [13] |
Richard Wilbur | New and Collected Poems | |||
John Hollander | Harp Lake | |||
Kenneth Koch | One Thousand Avant-Garde Plays | |||
Thomas McGrath | Selected Poems, 1938-1988 | |||
1989 | Rodney Jones | Transparent Gestures | Winner | |
August Kleinzahler | Earthquake Weather | |||
Robert Hass | Human Wishes | |||
Thylias Moss | Pyramid of Bone | |||
Nancy Willard | Water Walker | |||
1990 | Amy Gerstler | Bitter Angel | Winner | [14] |
Frank Bidart | In the Western Night | Finalist | [14] | |
John Haines | New Poems, 1980-88 | |||
Anthony Hecht | The Transparent Man | |||
Charles Simic | he Book of Gods and Devils | |||
1991 | Albert Goldbarth | Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology | Winner | [15] |
Diane Ackerman | Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New & Selected Poems | Finalist | ||
Allen Grossman | The Ether Dome and Other Poems: New & Selected (1979-1991) | |||
Philip Levine | What Work Is | |||
Adrienne Rich | An Atlas of the Difficult World | |||
1992 | Hayden Carruth | Collected Shorter Poems 1946–1991 | Winner | |
David Ferry | Gilgamesh | Finalist | ||
Maxine Kumin | Looking for Luck | |||
Sharon Olds | The Father | |||
K.C. Williams | A Dream of Mine | |||
1993 | Mark Doty | My Alexandria | Winner | |
Donald Hall | The Museum of Clear Ideas | Finalist | ||
Linda Hogan | The Book of Medicines | |||
Audre Lorde | The Marvelous Arithmetic of Distance | |||
Jack Marshall | Sesame | |||
1994 | Mark Rudman | Rider | Winner | [16] |
Dorianne Laux | What We Carry | Finalist | ||
Marilyn Hacker | Winter Numbers | |||
Philip Levine | The Simple Truth | |||
Mary Jo Salter | Sunday Skaters | |||
1995 | William Matthews | Time and Money | Winner | |
Lynda Hull | The Only World | Finalist | ||
James Merrill | A Scattering of Salts | |||
Carl Phillips | Cortege | |||
Ellen Bryant Voigt | Kyrie | |||
1996 | Robert Hass | Sun Under Wood | Winner | [17] |
Stephen Dunn | Loosestrife | Finalist | ||
Martín Espada | Imagine the Angels of Bread | |||
Jane Shore | Music Minus One | |||
C.K. Williams | The Vigil | |||
1997 | Charles Wright | Black Zodiac | Winner | |
Frank Bidart | Desire | Finalist | ||
Brenda Hillman | Loose Sugar | |||
Mark Jarman | Questions for Ecclesiastes | |||
Sonya Sanchez | Does Your House Have Lions? | |||
1998 | Marie Ponsot | The Bird Catcher | Winner | [18] |
Pamela White Hadas | Self-Evidence | Finalist | ||
Thylias Moss | Last Chance for the Tarzan Holler | |||
Anne Carson | The Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse | |||
Yusef Komunyakaa | Thieves of Paradise | |||
1999 | Ruth Stone | Ordinary Words | Winner | [19] |
Rafael Campo | Diva | Finalist | ||
Tory Dent | HIV, Mon Amour | |||
Rita Dove | On the Bus With Rosa Parks | |||
Susan Kingsolving | Dailies & Rushes | |||
2000 | Judy Jordan | Carolina Ghost Woods | Winner | [20] |
Michael Collier | The Ledge | Finalist | ||
Anne Carson | Men in the Off Hours | |||
Yusef Komunyakaa | Talking Dirty to the Gods | |||
Davis McCombs | Ultima Thule | |||
2001 | Albert Goldbarth | Saving Lives | Winner | [21] |
Louise Gluck | The Seven Ages | Finalist | ||
Bob Hicok | Animal Soul | |||
Jane Hirshfield | Given Sugar, Given Salt | |||
Czeslaw Milosz | A Treatise on Poetry | |||
2002 | B.H. Fairchild | Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest | Winner | [22] |
Major Jackson | Leaving Saturn | Finalist | [23] | |
Harryette Mullen | Sleeping With the Dictionary | |||
Sharon Olds | The Unswept Room | |||
Adam Zagajewski | Without End: New and Selected Poems | |||
2003 | Susan Stewart | Columbarium | Winner | [24] |
Carolyn Forche | Blue Hour | Finalist | [25] | |
Tony Hoagland | What Narcissism Means to Me | |||
Venus Khoury-Ghata | She Says | |||
Mary Szybist, tr. Marilyn Hacker | Granted | |||
2004 | Adrienne Rich | The School Among the Ruins | Winner | [26] |
Brigit Pegeen Kelly | The Orchard | Finalist | ||
D.A. Powell | Cocktails | |||
James Richardson | Interglacial | |||
Gary Snyder | Danger on Peaks | |||
2005 | Jack Gilbert | Refusing Heaven | Winner | [27] |
Simon Armitage | The Shout | Finalist | [27] | |
Blas Manuel de Luna | Bent to the Earth | |||
Richard Siken | Crush | |||
Ron Slate | The Incentive of the Maggot | |||
2006 | Troy Jollimore | Tom Thomson in Purgatory | Winner | [28] |
Daisy Fried | My Brother is Getting Arrested Again | Finalist | ||
Miltos Sachtouris | Poems (1945-1971) | |||
Frederick Seidel | Ooga-Booga | |||
W.D. Snodgrass | Not for Specialists: New and Selected Poems | |||
2007 | Mary Jo Bang | Elegy | Winner | [29] [30] |
Matthea Harvey | Modern Life | Finalist | [31] | |
Tadeusz Rózewicz | New Poems | |||
Michael O'Brien | Sleeping and Waking | |||
Tom Pickard | The Ballad of Jamie Allan | |||
2008 | Juan Felipe Herrera | Half the World in Light | Winner (tie) | [32] |
August Kleinzahler | Sleeping it Off in Rapid City | |||
Brenda Shaughnessy | Human Dark with Sugar | Finalist | [33] | |
Devin Johnston | Sources | |||
Pierre Martory with John Ashbery (trans.) | The Landscapist | |||
2009 | Rae Armantrout | Versed | Winner | [34] |
Louise Glück | A Village Life | Finalist | ||
Eleanor Ross Taylor | Captive Voices: New and Selected Poems, 1960–2008 | |||
D. A. Powell | Chronic | |||
Rachel Zucker | Museum of Accidents | |||
2010 | C.D. Wright | One With Others | Winner | [35] [36] |
Terrance Hayes | Lighthead | Finalist | ||
Anne Carson | Nox | |||
Kay Ryan | The Best of It | |||
Kathleen Graber | The Eternal City | |||
2011 | Laura Kasischke | Space, In Chains | Winner | [37] [38] |
Forrest Gander | Core Samples from the World | Finalist | [39] | |
Bruce Smith | Devotions | |||
Aracelis Girmay | Kingdom Animalia | |||
Yusef Komunyakaa | The Chameleon Couch | |||
2012 | D. A. Powell | Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys | Winner | [40] |
David Ferry | Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations | Finalist | [41] | |
Allan Peterson | Fragile Acts | |||
A. E. Stallings | Olives | |||
Lucia Perillo | On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths | |||
2013 | Frank Bidart | Metaphysical Dog | Winner | [42] [43] |
Denise Duhamel | Blowout | Finalist | [44] | |
Bob Hicok | Elegy Owed | |||
Carmen Gimenez Smith | Milk and Filth | |||
Lucie Brock-Broido | Stay, Illusion | |||
2014 | Claudia Rankine | Citizen: An American Lyric | Winner | [45] [46] |
Jake Adam York | Abide | Finalist | ||
Christian Wiman | Once in the West | |||
Saeed Jones | Prelude to Bruise | |||
Willie Perdomo | The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon | |||
2015 | Ross Gay | Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude | Winner | [47] |
Ada Limón | Bright Dead Things | Finalist | [48] | |
Terrance Hayes | How to Be Drawn | |||
Sinéad Morrissey | Parallax: And Selected Poems | |||
Frank Stanford | What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford | |||
2016 | Ishion Hutchinson | House of Lords and Commons | Winner | [49] [50] |
Robert Pinsky | At the Foundling Hospital | Finalist | [51] | |
Monica Youn | Blackacre | |||
Tyehimba Jess | Olio | |||
Bernadette Mayer | Works and Days | |||
2017 | Layli Long Soldier | Whereas | Winner | [52] [53] |
Ana Ristovic | Directions for Use | Finalist | [54] | |
James Longenbach | Earthling | |||
Nuar Alsadir | Fourth Person Singular | |||
Frank Ormsby | The Darkness of Snow | |||
2018 | Ada Limón | The Carrying | Winner | |
Terrance Hayes | American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin | Finalist | ||
Adam Zagajewski with Clare Cavanagh (trans.) | Asymmetry | |||
Erika Meitner | Holy Moly Carry Me | |||
Diane Seuss | Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl | |||
2019 | Morgan Parker | Magical Negro | Winner | [55] [56] |
Ilya Kaminsky | Deaf Republic | Finalist | ||
Brian Teare | Doomstead Days | |||
Mary Ruefle | Dunce | |||
Jericho Brown | The Tradition | |||
2020 | Francine J. Harris | Here Is the Sweet Hand | Winner | [57] [58] |
Danez Smith | Homie | Finalist | [59] | |
Amaud Jamaul Johnson | Imperial Liquor | |||
Victoria Chang | Obit | |||
Chris Nealon | The Shore | |||
2021 | Diane Seuss | Frank: Sonnets | Winner | [60] |
B.K. Fischer | Ceive | Finalist | [61] | |
Rajiv Mohabir | Cultish | |||
Donika Kelly | The Renunciations: Poems | |||
Cheswayo Mphanza | The Rinehart Frames | |||
2022 | Cynthia Cruz | Hotel Oblivion | Winner | [62] |
Paul Hlava Ceballos | banana [ ] | Finalist | [63] | |
David Hernandez | Hello I Must Be Going | |||
Mosab Abu Toha | Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear | |||
Bernadette Mayer | Milkweed Smithereens | |||
2023 | Kim Hyesoon | Phantom Pain Wings | Winner | [64] |
Romeo Oriogun | The Gathering of Bastards | Finalist | [65] | |
Robyn Schiff | Information Desk | |||
Charif Shanahan | Trace Evidence | |||
2024 | Anne Carson | Wrong Norma | Winner | [66] [67] |
Jennifer Chang | An Authentic Life | Finalist | [68] | |
Oliver Baez Bendorf | Consider the Rooster | |||
Dawn Lundy Martin | Instructions for the Lovers | |||
Carl Phillips | Scattered Snows, to the North |