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The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award came five years after the first Pulitzers were awarded in other categories; [note 1] Joseph Pulitzer's will had not mentioned poetry. [1] It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published during the preceding calendar year.
Before the establishment of the award, the 1918 and 1919 Pulitzer cycles included three Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards (called at the time the Columbia University Poetry Prize) for poetry books funded by "a special grant from The Poetry Society." [2] [note 2] See Special Pulitzers for Letters.
Harriet Monroe, founding publisher and long-time editor of Poetry magazine, wrote in an editorial (Apr.-Sept., 1922), "The award of a Pulitzer Prize of one thousand dollars to the Collected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson is a most agreeable surprise, as this is the first Pulitzer Prize ever granted to a poet. Four years ago, when the Poetry Society of America gave its first annual five hundred dollars to Sara Teasdale's Love Songs, the award, being made in conjunction with the Pulitzer prizes, was falsely attributed to the same origin." [1]
Finalists have been announced since 1980, ordinarily two others beside the winner. [2]
In its first 92 years to 2013, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry was awarded 92 times. Two were given in 2008, none in 1946. [2] Robert Frost won the prize four times and several others won it more than once (below).
Year | Poet | Title |
---|---|---|
1918 | Sara Teasdale | Love Songs |
1919 | Carl Sandburg | Cornhuskers |
1919 | Margaret Widdemer | The Old Road to Paradise |
Year | Poet | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Donald Justice | Selected Poems | Winner | |
Richard Hugo | Selected Poems | Finalist | ||
Dave Smith | Goshawk, Antelope | Finalist | ||
1981 | James Schuyler | The Morning of the Poem | Winner | |
Richard Hugo | The Right Madness on Skye | Finalist | ||
Mark Strand | Selected Poems | Finalist | ||
1982 | Sylvia Plath | The Collected Poems | Winner | |
Dave Smith | Dream Flights | Finalist | ||
Charles Wright | The Southern Cross | Finalist | ||
1983 | Galway Kinnell | Selected Poems | Winner | [11] |
Jack Gilbert | Monolithos, Poems 1962 and 1982 | Finalist | ||
Charles Wright | Country Music, Selected Early Poems | Finalist | ||
1984 | Mary Oliver | American Primitive | Winner | [12] [13] |
John Engels | Weather-Fear: New and Selected Poems | Finalist | ||
Josephine Miles | Collected Poems, 1930-1982 | Finalist | ||
1985 | Carolyn Kizer | Yin | Winner | |
Robert Duncan | Ground Work | Finalist | ||
Charles Wright | The Other Side of the River | Finalist | ||
1986 | Henry S. Taylor | The Flying Change | Winner | |
Andrew Hudgins | Saints and Strangers | Finalist | ||
Charles Simic | Selected Poems, 1963-1983 | Finalist | ||
1987 | Rita Dove | Thomas and Beulah | Winner | |
Hayden Carruth | The Selected Poetry of Hayden Carruth | Finalist | ||
Charles Simic | Unending Blues | Finalist | ||
1988 | William Meredith | Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems | Winner | |
Lucille Clifton | Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 and Next: New Poems | Finalist | ||
C.K. Williams | Flesh and Blood | Finalist | ||
1989 | Richard Wilbur | New and Collected Poems | Winner | |
Donald Hall | The One Day | Finalist | [14] | |
Garrett Hongo | The River of Heaven | Finalist |
Year | Poet | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | Charles Simic | The World Doesn't End | Winner | [15] [16] |
Adrienne Rich | Time's Power | Finalist | ||
Paul Zweig | Selected and Last Poems | Finalist | ||
1991 | Mona Van Duyn | Near Changes | Winner | |
Anthony Hecht | The Transparent Man | Finalist | ||
Gerald Stern | Leaving Another Kingdom | Finalist | ||
1992 | James Tate | Selected Poems | Winner | [17] |
Robert Creeley | Selected Poems | Finalist | ||
Adrienne Rich | An Atlas of the Difficult World | Finalist | ||
1993 | Louise Glück | The Wild Iris [note 4] | Winner | [19] |
John Ashbery | Hotel Lautreamont | Finalist | ||
James Merrill | Selected Poems 1946-1985 | Finalist | ||
1994 | Yusef Komunyakaa | Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems [note 5] | Winner | |
Brenda Hillman | Bright Existence | Finalist | ||
Allen Mandelbaum | The Metamorphoses of Ovid | Finalist | ||
1995 | Philip Levine | The Simple Truth [note 6] | Winner | [20] |
Allen Ginsberg | Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992 | Finalist | ||
Kenneth Koch | On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988 and One Train | Finalist | ||
1996 | Jorie Graham | The Dream of the Unified Field [note 7] | Winner | |
Donald Justice | New and Selected Poems | Finalist | ||
Charles Wright | Chickamauga | Finalist | ||
1997 | Lisel Mueller | Alive Together: New and Selected Poems [note 8] | Winner | [21] |
Robert Pinsky | The Figured Wheel | Finalist | ||
Laurie Sheck | The Willow Grove | Finalist | ||
1998 | Charles Wright | Black Zodiac | Winner | |
Frank Bidart | Desire | Finalist | ||
C.K. Williams | The Vigil | Finalist | ||
1999 | Mark Strand | Blizzard of One | Winner | [22] |
Alice Notley | Mysteries of Small Houses | Finalist | ||
Frederick Seidel | Going Fast | Finalist |
Year | Poet | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | C. K. Williams | Repair | Winner | [23] |
Rodney Jones | Elegy for the Southern Drawl | Finalist | ||
Adrienne Rich | Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998 | Finalist | ||
2001 | Stephen Dunn | Different Hours | Winner | [24] [25] |
Sydney Lea | Pursuit of a Wound | Finalist | ||
Bruce Smith | The Other Lover | Finalist | ||
2002 | Carl Dennis | Practical Gods | Winner | |
Louise Glück | The Seven Ages | Finalist | ||
Franz Wright | The Beforelife | Finalist | ||
2003 | Paul Muldoon | Moy Sand and Gravel | Winner | [26] |
Frank Bidart | Music Like Dirt | Finalist | ||
J. D. McClatchy | Hazmat | Finalist | [27] | |
2004 | Franz Wright | Walking to Martha's Vineyard | Winner | |
Henri Cole | Middle Earth | Finalist | ||
Heather McHugh | Eyeshot | Finalist | ||
2005 | Ted Kooser | Delights & Shadows | Winner | |
William Matthews | Search Party: Collected Poems | Finalist | ||
Brigit Pegeen Kelly | The Orchard | Finalist | [28] | |
2006 | Claudia Emerson | Late Wife | Winner | |
Elizabeth Alexander | American Sublime | Finalist | ||
Dean Young | Elegy on Toy Piano | Finalist | [29] | |
2007 | Natasha Trethewey | Native Guard | Winner | |
Martín Espada | The Republic of Poetry | Finalist | ||
David Wojahn | Interrogation Palace: New & Selected Poems 1982-2004 | Finalist | ||
2008 | Robert Hass | Time and Materials | Winner | |
Philip Schultz | Failure | Winner | ||
Ellen Bryant Voigt | Messenger: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2006 | Finalist | ||
2009 | W. S. Merwin | The Shadow of Sirius | Winner | [30] [31] |
Frank Bidart | Watching the Spring Festival | Finalist | ||
Ruth Stone | What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems | Finalist |
Year | Poet | Title | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Jericho Brown | The Tradition | Winner | [56] [57] [58] [59] |
Dorianne Laux | Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems | Finalist | [58] | |
Mary Ruefle | Dunce | Finalist | [58] | |
2021 | Natalie Diaz | Postcolonial Love Poem | Winner | [58] [60] [61] [62] |
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge | A Treatise on Stars | Finalist | [58] | |
Carolyn Forché | In the Lateness of the World | Finalist | [58] | |
2022 | Diane Seuss | frank: sonnets | Winner | [63] [64] [65] |
Will Alexander | Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten | Finalist | [63] [64] | |
Mai Der Vang | Yellow Rain | Finalist | [63] [64] | |
2023 | Carl Phillips | Then the War: and Selected Poems, 2007–2020 | Winner | [66] [67] [68] [69] |
Jay Hopler | Still Life | Finalist | [66] | |
dg nanouk okpik | Blood Snow | Finalist | [66] | |
2024 | Brandon Som | Tripas: Poems | Winner | [70] |
Jorie Graham | To 2040 | Finalist | [70] | |
Robyn Schiff | Information Desk: An Epic | Finalist | [70] |
The following individuals received two or more Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry (The 1918 and 1919 Special Prizes are included):
Wins | Poet | Years |
---|---|---|
4 | Robert Frost | 1924, 1931, 1937, 1943 |
3 | Edwin Arlington Robinson | 1922, 1925, 1928 |
2 | Stephen Vincent Benét | 1929, 1944 |
Robert Lowell | 1947, 1974 | |
Archibald MacLeish | 1933, 1953 | |
William S. Merwin | 1971, 2009 | |
Carl Sandburg | 1919, 1951 | |
Robert Penn Warren | 1958, 1979 | |
Richard Wilbur | 1957, 1989 |
The following individuals received two or more nominations:
Bolded years are years that the poet won
Nominations | Poet | Years |
---|---|---|
5 | Charles Wright | 1982, 1983, 1985, 1996, 1998 |
4 | Frank Bidart | 1998, 2003, 2009, 2018 |
Robert Frost | 1924, 1931, 1937, 1943 | |
Adrienne Rich | 1990, 1992, 2000, 2017 | |
3 | Edwin Arlington Robinson | 1922, 1925, 1928 |
Charles Simic | 1986, 1987, 1990 | |
2 | John Ashbery | 1976, 1993 |
Stephen Vincent Benét | 1929, 1944 | |
Forrest Gander | 2012, 2019 | |
Jack Gilbert | 1983, 2013 | |
Louise Glück | 1993, 2002 | |
Anthony Hecht | 1968, 1991 | |
Richard Hugo | 1980, 1981 | |
Donald Justice | 1980, 1996 | |
Robert Lowell | 1947, 1974 | |
Archibald MacLeish | 1933, 1953 | |
James Merril | 1977, 1993 | |
William S. Merwin | 1971, 2009 | |
Carl Sandburg | 1919, 1951 | |
Diane Seuss | 2016, 2022 | |
Mark Strand | 1981, 1999 | |
Dave Smith | 1980, 1982 | |
Robert Penn Warren | 1958, 1979 | |
Richard Wilbur | 1957, 1989 | |
C.K. Williams | 1988, 1998 | |
Franz Wright | 2002, 2004 |
Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times from 1924 to 1943. Edwin Arlington Robinson won three prizes during the 1920s and several people, all male, have won two.
Carl Sandburg won one of the special prizes for his poetry in 1919 and won the Poetry Pulitzer in 1951.
Only four women have had multiple nominations: Adrienne Rich with 4, and Louise Glück, Jorie Graham and Diane Seuss with 2 each.
The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history of the United States. Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year. The Pulitzer Prize program has also recognized some historical work with its Biography prize, from 1917, and its General Nonfiction prize, from 1962.
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author." Award winners received $15,000 USD.
Richard Purdy Wilbur was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets, along with his friend Anthony Hecht, of the World War II generation, Wilbur's work, often employing rhyme, and composed primarily in traditional forms, was marked by its wit, charm, and gentlemanly elegance. He was acclaimed in his youth as the heir to Robert Frost, translated the verse dramas of Moliere, Corneille, and Racine into rhymed English, collaborated with Leonard Bernstein as the lyricist for the opera Candide, and in his old age acted, particularly through his role in the annual West Chester University Poetry Conference, as a mentor to the younger poets of the New Formalist movement. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry twice, in 1957 and 1989.
The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin.
The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2021, winners receive US$50,000.
The Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, colloquially called the Vicky, is given annually at the Writers' Trust Awards to a writer or illustrator whose body of work has been "inspirational to Canadian youth". It is a top honour for Canadian children's writers and Canadian children's book illustrators.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is an international children's literary award established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honour the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). The prize is five million SEK, making it the richest award in children's literature and one of the richest literary prizes in the world. The annual cost of 10 million SEK is financed with tax money.
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awards go to writers under the age of 35 with works published in the year before the award; the work can be either non-fiction, fiction or poetry.
Dušan Simić, known as Charles Simic, was a Serbian American poet and poetry co-editor of The Paris Review. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for The World Doesn't End and was a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Selected Poems, 1963–1983 and in 1987 for Unending Blues. He was appointed the fifteenth United States Poet Laureate in 2007.
Jorie Graham is an American poet. The Poetry Foundation called Graham "one of the most celebrated poets of the American post-war generation." She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University, becoming the first woman to be appointed to this position. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1996) for The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994 and was chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1997 to 2003. She won the 2013 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
The PEN Translation Prize is an annual award given by PEN America to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been presented annually by PEN America and the Book of the Month Club since 1963. It was the first award in the United States expressly for literary translators. A 1999 New York Times article called it "the Academy Award of Translation" and that the award is thus usually not given to younger translators.
The Cholmondeley Awards are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has been made to four poets each year, to the total value of £8000.
The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are a set of American literary awards conferred by The Boston Globe and The Horn Book Magazine annually from 1967. One book is recognized in each of four categories: Fiction and Poetry, Nonfiction, and Picture Book. The official website calls the awards "among the most prestigious honors in children's and young adult literature".
The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, established in 1986, is awarded annually to the best collection of poetry by a resident of British Columbia, Canada.
Carl Phillips is an American writer and poet. He is a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2023, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020.
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf and originally administered by the Saturday Review, the awards have been administered by the Cleveland Foundation since 1963.
The PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award honors "excellence in the art of the short story". It is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. The selection committee is composed of PEN/Faulkner directors. The award was first given in 1988.
Gregory Pardlo is an American poet, writer, and professor. His book Digest won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His poems, reviews, and translations have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Poet Lore, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and on National Public Radio. His work has been praised for its “language simultaneously urban and highbrow… snapshots of a life that is so specific it becomes universal.”
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.