Poetry Magazine Prizes
Several prizes are awarded annually for work printed in Poetry during the preceding year. Only poems already published in the magazine are eligible for consideration, and no formal application is necessary. The winners are announced in the December issue. Below the prize descriptions is a complete list of past prize winners.
The Poetry Foundation also administers many other awards and grants.
The Levinson Prize, presented annually since 1914 through the generosity of the late Salmon O. Levinson and his family, in the amount of $500, is awarded to Jennifer Chang for her poems “Dialogues (Against Literature)” and “The Age of Unreason” from the July/August 2023 issue.
The Bess Hokin Prize, established in 1948 through the generosity of Poetry’s late friend and guarantor Mrs. David Hokin, in the amount of $1,000, is awarded to Omar Sakr for his series of three poems titled “On Finding the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Dante's ‘Inferno’” in the June 2023 issue.
The Frederick Bock Prize, founded in 1981 by friends in memory of the former associate editor of Poetry, in the amount of $500, is awarded to Michelle Peñaloza for her poems “Utang Na Loob” and “All the Words I Can Remember Are Poems” from the July/August 2023 issue.
The J. Howard and Barbara M.J. Wood Prize, endowed since 1994, in the amount of $5,000, is awarded to Omotara James for her poems “Autobiography of Thud” and “First Kiss/Under Capitalism” in the January 2023 issue.
The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize for Translation, established in 1999 by Bonnie Larkin Nims, trustees of the Poetry Foundation, and friends of the late poet, translator, and editor, in the amount of $500, is awarded to Lena Khalaf Tuffaha for her translations of Zakaria Mohammed’s poems, “January 2,” “August 15,” and “August 16” in the September 2023 issue.
The Friends of Literature Prize, established in 2002 by the Friends of Literature, in the amount of $500, is awarded to Yongyu Chen for their poem “Theory of Mesh” in the February 2023 issue.
The Editors Prize for Feature Article, established in 2005, in the amount of $1,000, is awarded to two authors this year: Nikky Finney for her essay “Carolyn Rodgers: Loving on Black People” in the October 2022 issue and torrin a. greathouse for her essay “Writing from the Ashes: On the Burning Haibun” in the July/August 2023 issue.
The Editors Prize for Reviewing, established in 2004, in the amount of $1,000, was not awarded in 2022 or 2023 since Poetry magazine didn’t publish any reviews in the eligible issues. Instead, we awarded two prizes for Feature Article.
The Editors Prize for Visual Poetry, established in 2019, in the amount of $1,000, is awarded to Roda Avelar for her poem “Jotxland Epic” from the March 2023 issue.
Congratulations to this year’s winners and many thanks to the judges of this year’s magazine prizes: Alejandro Aguirre, Sohini Basak, Emily Brandt, Nicholas Goodly, Lisa Low, and Natalie Perman.
Past Winners by Prize and Year
The Levinson Prize has been presented annually since 1914 through the generosity of the late Salmon O. Levinson and his family, and is now permanently endowed. Past winners include:
Carl Sandburg 1914 | James Merrill 1949 | Ernst Pöppel 1983 |
The Bess Hokin Prize was established in 1947 through the generosity of our late friend and guarantor, Mrs. David Hokin, and is given annually in her memory. Past winners include:
William Abrahams 1948 | Sandra McPherson 1972 | Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill 1996 |
The Frederick Bock Prize was founded in 1981 by friends of the late former Associate Editor of Poetry. Past winners include:
John N. Morris 1981 | Tom Disch 1994 | Jason Guriel 2007 |
The Union League Civic and Arts Poetry Prize for a young poet was presented annually from 1951 to 1972, and re-established in 1993 to 2006, through the generosity of the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation. Past winners include:
Horace Gregory 1951 | William Jay Smith 1963 | Neal Bowers 1995 |
The J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize is presented annually and endowed since 1994 through the generosity of Mrs. Wood. Past winners include:
Rebecca McClanahan 1994 | Stephen Dobyns 2002 | Dorothea Grossman 2010 |
The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize for translation work is permanently endowed through a fund established by Bonnie Larkin Nims, Trustees of The Poetry Foundation, and friends of the late poet, translator, and Editor of Poetry. Past winners include:
Rita Dove and Fred Viebahn 1999
Andrew Shields 2000
Marilyn Hacker 2001
Eavan Boland 2002
Reginald Gibbons and Charles Segal 2003
Sherod Santos 2004
Clare Cavanagh 2005
Geoffrey Brock 2006
Michael Hofmann 2007
Philip Nikolayev 2008
Susanna Nied 2009
Laura Leichum 2010
A.E. Stallings 2011
Peter Cole 2012
Miller Oberman 2013
Kareem James Abu-Zeid 2014
Ming Di and Jennifer Stern 2015
Julia Guez and Samantha Zighelboim 2016
Jeffrey Angles 2017
Karen Leeder 2018
John Hennessy and Ostap Kin 2019
Amy Newman 2020
Jae Kim 2021
Irma Pineda and Wendy Call 2022
The Friends of Literature Prize was established in 2002 by The Friends of Literature, founded in Chicago in 1934 to study literature and to honor those who create it. Past winners include:
Gregory Djanikian 2002
Susan Kinsolving 2003
Ralph Sneeden 2004
Nance Van Winckel 2005
Dana Levin 2006
Todd Hearon 2007
Leila Wilson 2008
Sandra Beasley 2009
Spencer Reece 2010
Sina Queyras 2011
Devin Johnston 2012
Idra Novey 2013
francine j. harris 2014
Amy Newman 2015
Heather Phillipson 2016
Tommy Pico 2017
Eboni Hogan 2018
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal 2019
TC Tolbert 2020
Keith S. Wilson 2021
Gabriel Townsell 2022
The Editors Prize for Criticism was established in 2004 by the Poetry Foundation.
Michael Hofmann 2004
Editors Prize for Feature Article was established in 2005 by the Poetry Foundation.
Mary Kinzie 2005
Tony Hoagland 2006
Clive James 2007
Vivian Gornick 2008
Daisy Fried 2009
Durs Grünbein 2010
Joshua Mehigan 2011
Mary Ruefle 2012
Eliza Griswold and Seamus Murphy 2013
Tom Sleigh 2014
Jenny Zhang 2015
Garrett Caples 2016
Carl Phillips 2017
Matthew Bevis 2018
Jennifer Tseng 2019
Joy Ladin 2020
heidi andrea restrepo rhodes 2021
Sasha Pimentel and Raymond Antrobus 2022
Editors Prize for Book Reviewing was established in 2005 by the Poetry Foundation.
D.H. Tracy 2005
David Orr 2006
Brian Phillips 2007
Ange Mlinko 2008
Jason Guriel 2009
Abigail Deutsch 2010
Peter Campion 2011
Adam Kirsch 2012
Michael Robbins 2013
Frances Richard 2014
Maya Catherine Popa 2015
Jim Johnstone 2016
Vidyan Ravinthiran 2017
Paul Batchelor 2018
Mark Ford 2019
Kit Fan 2020
Alan Gilbert 2021
The Editors Prize for Best Letter was established in 2009 by the Poetry Foundation.
Reagan Upshaw 2009
Daniel Brett Clendening 2010
Belle Randall 2011
The Editors Prize for Visual Poetry was established in 2019 by the Poetry Foundation.
Alyssa Moore 2019
Charles Shields 2020
Oli Rodriguez 2021
Keith S. Wilson 2022
