poetry news - NYC

Announcing the Winners of the 2015 American Poets Prizes   The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce the 2015 winners of the American Poets Prizes. Launched in 1936, the Academy of American Poets’ annual awards are among the oldest and most generous prizes for poets in the United States. This year, we have awarded over $200,000 to poets at various stages of their careers.

Joy Harjo: Wallace Stevens Award Winner   The Wallace Stevens Award is given annually to recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry. Established in 1994, the award carries a stipend of $100,000. Recipients are nominated and elected by a majority vote of the Academy of American Poets’ Board of Chancellors. Marie Howe: Academy of American Poets Fellowship Winner   Established in 1936 and given in memory of James Ingram Merrill, this prize recognizes distinguished poetic achievement and carries with it a stipend of $25,000. Fellows are nominated and elected by a majority vote of the Academy of American Poets’ Board of Chancellors. Kevin Young: Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize Winner   Kevin Young’s poetry collection Book of Hours (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014) has received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Awarded by the Academy of American Poets since 1994, this $25,000 prize recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year. Past recipients include Wanda Coleman, Mark Jarman, and Stanley Kunitz. The judges were Marie Howe, A. Van Jordan, and Donald Revell. Kathryn Nuernberger: James Laughlin Award Winner   Kathryn Nuernberger’s book The End of Pink (BOA Editions, 2016) has won the James Laughlin Award, which recognizes a superior second book of poetry by an American poet. Offered since 1954 and endowed in 1995 by the Drue Heinz Trust, the annual award is named for the poet and publisher James Laughlin, founder of New Directions. The winning poet receives a cash prize of $5,000, a one-week residency at the Betsy Hotel in Miami, and the Academy of American Poets distributes copies of the book to thousands of its members. The judges were Francisco X. Alarcón, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and D. Nurkse. Roger Greenwald: Harold Morton Landon Translation Award Winner   Roger Greenwald’s Guarding the Air: Selected Poems by Gunnar Harding(Black Widow Press, 2014) has won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. Founded in 1976, this $1,000 prize recognizes a published translation of poetry from any language into English that demonstrates literary excellence. This year’s judge was Bill Johnston. Todd Portnowitz: Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship   Todd Portnowitz has won the 2015 Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship for his translation of Pierluigi Cappello’s Go Tell It to the Emperor: Selected Poems. Established in 1995, this prize recognizes outstanding translations of modern Italian poetry into English through an award of $25,000 and a five-week residency at the American Academy in Rome. The judges were Adria Bernardi, Luigi Fontanella, and Giuseppe Leporace. Blake N. Campbell: Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award Winner   Blake N. Campbell has won the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award for his poem “Bioluminescence.” Established in 2013, the award recognizes a student poet with a cash prize of $1,000. The prize is open to winners, who are twenty-three years old or younger, of the current year’s University & College Poetry Prizes, also given by the Academy of American Poets. Submissions are judged by one of the past or current members of the Academy’s Board of Chancellors. This year’s judge was Linda Gregerson. Sjohnna McCray: Walt Whitman Award Winner   (Announced earlier this year) Sjohnna McCray’s manuscript, Rapture, was selected by Tracy K. Smith for the Walt Whitman Award. Established in 1975 to encourage the work of emerging poets, the award includes first-book publication by Graywolf Press, a cash prize of $5,000, a residency, and distribution to thousands of Academy of American Poets members.