Poetry Society of America

PSA Awards Winners

The Poetry Society's extensive awards program recognizes excellence in poetry, promotes skill in traditional forms as well as experiments in contemporary styles, and honors important work written by both emerging and established poets. | Poetry ebooks

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The Frost Medal is awarded annually at the discretion of the Poetry Society of America's Board of Governors for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry. The Shelley Memorial Award is bestowed upon a living American poet selected with reference to his or her genius and need by a jury of three poets.

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry | The TS Eliot Prize

The awards are judged by distinguished poets whose styles and aesthetics span the gamut of contemporary verse. Recent judges have included Robert Creeley, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Jorie Graham, Seamus Heaney, Garrett Hongo, Susan Howe, Sonia Sanchez, Gerald Stern, James Tate, Quincy Troupe, and John Yau.

The majority of the awards are open to the public. Only two awards each year, the Frost Medal and the Shelley Memorial Award, are not subject to an application process.

The Poetry Society of America Awards Details and Guidelines

Poetry Society of America Awards Winners 2002

The Frost Medal: Galway Kinnell for Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight | Paperback

Norma Farber First Book Award: Jennifer Michael Hecht for The Next Ancient World | Paperback

William Carlos Williams Award: Li-Young Lee for Book of My Nights | Hardcover | Paperback

The Shelley Memorial Award: Angela Jackson & Marie Ponsot

Recent winners of this award have included Frank Bidart, Lucille Clifton, Shirley Kaufman, Etheridge Knight, Kenneth Koch, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Cathy Song, Tom Sleigh, Eleanor Ross Taylor, Jean Valentine, Mona Van Duyn, and Anne Waldman.

The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award*: Mary Ann Samyn

Cecil Hemley Memorial Award*: Andrew Zawacki

Lyric Poetry Award*: Shira Dentz

Lucille Medwick Memorial Award*: Minnie Bruce Pratt

Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award*: Andrew Zawacki

Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award: Julia Friedlander

George Bogin Memorial Award: Kevin Prufer

Robert H. Winner Memorial Award: Margo Berdeshevsky