The PSA sponsors twelve annual awards contests, with the aim of encouraging and rewarding excellence in poetry by both new and established poets. The twelve award winners are honored at our Annual Awards Ceremony, held in New York City in the spring of each year. Recent winners include: Mary Jo Bang, Carol Ciavonne, Brenda Coultas, Lyn Hejinian, Richard Howard, John McKernan, Wayne Miller, Marie Ponsot, Kevin Prufer, Julie Sheehan, Lee Upton, G.C. Waldrep, Fritz Ward, Anne Winters, and others.

 

PSA Member Awards: Awards 1-5 are open only to PSA Members

• Award 1—The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award
  $250
  Given by the PSA to honor the memory and poetry of Emily Dickinson, for a poem inspired by Dickinson though not necessarily in her style. Line limit: 30.
• Award 2—Cecil Hemley Memorial Award
  $500
  Established by Jack Stadler, former Treasurer of the PSA, and his late wife, Ralynn Stadler, for a lyric poem that addresses a philosophical or epistemological concern. Line limit: 100.
• Award 3—Lyric Poetry Award
  $500
  Established under the will of PSA member Mrs. Consuelo Ford (Althea Urn), and also in memory of Mary Carolyn Davies, for a lyric poem on any subject. Line limit: 50.
• Award 4—Lucille Medwick Memorial Award
  $500
  Established by Maury Medwick in memory of his wife, the poet and editor, for an original poem in any form on a humanitarian theme. Line limit: 100.
• Award 5—Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award
  $1,000
  Offered in memory of a benefactor and friend of the PSA, and partially endowed by the Estate of Rachel Dalven, for a manuscript-in-progress of poetry or verse-drama. The anonymous cover page for this submission must include a one-paragraph description of the collection or project. Finalists will be asked to submit additional material. Previously published work may be included in your submission; include acknowledgement of publications on your cover page. Poems entered as part of a Di Castagnola manuscript may be entered individually in other PSA contests, but NOT if they are previously published. Line limit: 300 lines of verse; one sample scene, 20 pages or less, if verse-drama.

PSA Member/Non-Member Awards

Awards 6-10 are open to all eligible poets and publishers

• Award 6—Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award
  $250
  Endowed under the wills of Louise Louis Whitbread and Ruth M. Bourne, this prize is awarded for the best unpublished poem by a student in grades 9 through 12 from the United States. School attended, as well as name and address, teachers or administrators may submit an unlimited number of their students' poems (one submission per student-see Entry Fees, below). Line limit: none.
• Award 7—George Bogin Memorial Award
  $500
  Established by the family and friends of George Bogin for a selection of four or five poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinary and to take a stand against oppression in any of its forms. Line limit: none.
• Award 8—Robert H. Winner Memorial Award
  $2,500
  Established by the family and friends of Robert H. Winner, whose first book of poems appeared when he was almost fifty years old. This award acknowledges original work being done in mid-career by a poet who has not had substantial recognition, and it is open to poets over forty who have published no more than one book. Send a brief but cohesive manuscript of 10 poems (up to 20 pages). Please include year of birth on cover page. Previously published work may be included in your submission; include acknowledgement of publications on your cover page. Poems entered as part of a Winner manuscript may be entered individually in other PSA contests, but NOT if they are previously published.

Awards 9 & 10
Books must be submitted directly by publishers. Entry forms are required. Please email, write, or call Thomas Hummel, Editorial and Awards Coordinator at the PSA, to request a form (tom@poetrysociety.org; 212-254-9628). The guidelines can also be downloaded in pdf format here, or in rtf format here. If you wish to download the pdf, and do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, please visit here. There is a $20 entry fee per book. No book may be submitted to both contests.

• Award 9—Norma Farber First Book Award
  $500
  Established by the family and friends of Norma Farber, poet and author of children's books, for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition during the calendar year. Winning books are distributed to PSA members at the Benefactor level or above.
• Award 10—William Carlos Williams Award
  Purchase Prize Between $500 and $1,000
  Endowed by the family and friends of Geraldine Clinton Little, a poet and author of short stories and former vice-president of the PSA, this prize is for a book of poetry published by a small press, non-profit, or university press. Original works by a single author who is a permanent resident of the United States will be considered. Translations are ineligible, as are chapbooks. Winning books are distributed to PSA members at the Benefactor level or above.

Awards 11 & 12
Awards 11 and 12 are by nomination only

• Award 11—The Frost Medal
  Awarded annually at the discretion of the PSA's Board of Governors for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry. Since 1995, the recipient of the Frost Medal has delivered the Frost Medal Lecture, a retrospective reading and talk that is the highlight of the Annual Awards Ceremony.
  
  Robert Frost, Edgar Lee Masters, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, and Wallace Stevens have all been honored by the Poetry Society of America with this Award. The Frost Medal has recently been awarded to A.R. Ammons, John Ashbery, Gwendolyn Brooks, Barbara Guest, Donald Hall, Anthony Hecht, Josephine Jacobsen, Galway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, James Laughlin, Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Sonia Sanchez, William Stafford, and Richard Wilbur.
  
  The $2,500 prize is provided for by a contribution from Jack Stadler, PSA Treasurer Emeritus.
• Award 12—The Shelley Memorial Award
  Between $6,000 and $9,000
  Established by the will of the late Mary P. Sears in 1929 and given by nomination only, the Shelley Memorial Award is awarded to a living American poet, selected with reference to his or her genius and need, by a jury of three poets—one appointed by the President of Radcliffe, one by the president of the University of California at Berkeley, and one by the PSA Board of Governors.
  
  Recent winners of this award have included Frank Bidart, Lucille Clifton, Angela Jackson, Shirley Kaufman, Etheridge Knight, Kenneth Koch, Stanley Kunitz, Alice Notley, Michael Palmer, Robert Pinsky, Marie Ponsot, Cathy Song, Tom Sleigh, Eleanor Ross Taylor, Jean Valentine, Mona Van Duyn, and Anne Waldman.

 

• Manuscripts accepted between October 1st and December 23rd of 2006.
• Submissions must be sent in duplicate.
• Submissions must be typed on white, 8 1/2" x 11" paper. No illustrations or accompanying materials will be considered.
• The name of the award must appear in the upper right hand corner of each page of the submission.
• The author's name and address must not appear anywhere on the poem or poems submitted.
• Submissions must be accompanied by a cover page; the cover page should be stapled to one of the copies of your submission and must include: your name, address, email address if available, telephone number, the award name and number, the number of lines in your submission where applicable (see individual awards for line specifications), and the title and first line of the first (or only) poem in the submission.
• If you are submitting to more than one contest, you are encouraged to send your entries in one envelope, but you must have a separate cover page for each entry or your submissions will be disqualified.
• On the outside of the envelope, please indicate whether you are a PSA Member or a Non-Member. If you have begun your membership quite recently, please write New Member on the outside of the envelope.
• You may not submit the same poem to more than one contest. Exception: Individual poems submitted as part of a group to either the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award or the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award may be submitted to another PSA contest.
• You may submit only one entry per contest.
• Translations are ineligible.
• No previously published work may be submitted, with the exception of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola and Robert H. Winner Memorial Awards.
• A poem that has already won a PSA award may not be re-submitted.
• No PSA employee or officer is eligible to enter the PSA contests.
• NOTE: The PSA Chapbook Fellowship Program and the PSA Annual Awards are separate entities with separate guidelines. Submitting to one does not prevent you from submitting to the other. Guidelines for the PSA Chapbook Fellowship Program are available on our website.

 

• All contests are free to PSA Members, with the exception of the Norma Farber First Book Award and the William Carlos Williams Award, which must be entered and paid for by the publisher.
• The entry fee for Non-Members is $15, which entitles the Non-Member to enter any or all of contests 6 through 8.
• High school students may send single entries to the Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award for the fee of $5. High school teachers or administrators may submit an unlimited number of their students' poems (one submission per student) for a $20 entry fee.
• Checks should be made payable to the Poetry Society of America. Please do not send cash.

 

• For an acknowledgement of receipt of submissions, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard (SASP).
• If you would like to receive a print announcement of the awards winners, please enclose a SASE; the winners will also be announced on our website (www.poetrysociety.org).
• No entries will be returned; do not enclose a SASE for that purpose.
• Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we cannot inform entrants of incorrectly submitted or disqualified material, nor can we accept any corrections or revisions to submissions.

 

• The PSA will only accept submissions postmarked between October 1st and December 23rd of 2006. Express Mail and FedEx packages are acceptable but must also be postmarked on or before December 15th.
• Please mail your submission to:
  Poetry Society of America
  15 Gramercy Park
  New York, N.Y. 10003

 

A completed submission includes:

• TWO copies of the stapled, anonymous submission
• A cover page, stapled to one of the copies
• A SASP if you would like acknowledgement of receipt of submission
• A SASE if you would like to be notified of the winners
• A check for $15 from Non-Members
• Membership status clearly marked on the outside of the submission envelope