Today, we’re thrilled to announce Marilyn Nelson has been honored with the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. The award comes with a prize of $100,000. Of Nelson’s career in poetry, the editor of Poetry magazine, Don Share, writes: “Marilyn Nelson has been committed throughout her career to meticulously chronicling the contemporary and historical experience—and contributions—of Black people in America […] Everyone who cares about how life is lived and felt in this country should read her vivid and deeply considered work.” In addition to the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Terrance Hayes has been awarded the 2019 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism, while Naomi Shihab Nye was named the 2019–2021 Young People’s Poet Laureate. More about this year’s award winners:
“As part of our mission, and core to Poetry magazine’s 106-year history, we celebrate the best poetry, and with these awards we honor some of the writers who bring it into the world today,” said Henry Bienen, president of the Poetry Foundation. “We’re honored to recognize the lifelong work of Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye’s dedication to young readers, and Terrance Hayes’s reimagination of Etheridge Knight’s body of work.”
Head here to read more about the poets honored and the awards given. Congrats to all!