The Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.^[1] The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need, and is currently worth (2014) between $6,000 and $9,000.^[2] The selection is made by a jury of three poets: one each appointed by the presidents of Radcliffe and Berkeley, and the third by the Board of Governors of the Society.

Winners

Winners of the Shelley Memorial Prize:^[3]

• 2023 — Evie Shockley
• 2022 — Joyelle McSweeney
• 2021 — Arthur Sze
• 2020 — Rick Barot
• 2019 — Carl R. Martin
• 2018 — Ntozake Shange
• 2017 — Gillian Conoley
• 2016 — Sonia Sanchez
• 2015 — D. A. Powell
• 2014 — Bernadette Mayer
• 2013 — Martín Espada / Lucia Perillo
• 2012 — Wanda Coleman
• 2011 — Rigoberto González / Joan Larkin
• 2010 — Kenneth Irby / Eileen Myles
• 2009 — Ron Padgett / Gary Young
• 2008 — Ed Roberson
• 2007 — Kimiko Hahn
• 2006 — George Stanley
• 2005 — Lyn Hejinian
• 2004 — Yusef Komunyakaa
• 2003 — James McMichael
• 2002 — Angela Jackson / Marie Ponsot
• 2001 — Alice Notley / Michael Palmer
• 2000 — Jean Valentine
• 1999 — Tom Sleigh
• 1998 — Eleanor Ross Taylor
• 1997 — Frank Bidart
• 1996 — Robert Pinsky / Anne Waldman
• 1995 — Stanley Kunitz
• 1994 — Cathy Song / Kenneth Koch
• 1993 — Josephine Jacobsen
• 1992 — Lucille Clifton
• 1991 — Shirley Kaufman
• 1990 — Thom Gunn
• 1989 — Thomas McGrath / Theodore Weiss
• 1988 — Dennis Schmitz
• 1987 — Mona Van Duyn
• 1986 — Gary Snyder
• 1985 — Etheridge Knight
• 1984 — Robert Duncan / Denise Levertov
• 1983 — Jon Anderson / Leo Connellan
• 1982 — Alan Dugan
• 1981 — Robert Creeley
• 1980 — Julia Randall
• 1979 — Hayden Carruth
• 1978 — Jane Cooper / William Everson
• 1977 — Muriel Rukeyser
• 1976 — Gwendolyn Brooks
• 1975 — Edward Field
• 1974 — W. S. Merwin
• 1973 — John Ashbery / Richard Wilbur
• 1972 — Galway Kinnell
• 1971 — Louise Townsend Nicholl / Adrienne Rich
• 1970 — X. J. Kennedy / Mary Oliver
• 1969 — Ann Stanford
• 1968 — May Swenson
• 1967 — Anne Sexton
• 1966 — David Ignatow
• 1965 — Ruth Stone
• 1964 — William Stafford
• 1963 — Eric Barker
• 1962 — Theodore Roethke
• 1961 — Robinson Jeffers
• 1960 — Delmore Schwartz
• 1959 — Jose Garcia Villa
• 1958 — Kenneth Rexroth
• 1957 — George Abbe
• 1956 — Robert Fitzgerald
• 1955 — Léonie Adams
• 1954 — Kenneth Patchen
• 1953 — Elizabeth Bishop
• 1952 — Richard Eberhart
• 1951 — Jeremy Ingalls
• 1950 — Louis Kent
• 1949 — John Berryman
• 1948 — Janet Lewis
• 1947 — Rolfe Humphries
• 1946 — Karl Shapiro
• 1945 — E. E. Cummings
• 1944 — Edgar Lee Masters
• 1943 — Robert Penn Warren
• 1942 — Ridgely Torrence
• 1941 — Marianne Moore
• 1940 — Herbert Bruncken / Winfield T. Scott
• 1939 — Harry Brown / Robert Francis
• 1938 — Lincoln Fitzell
• 1937 — Ben Belitt / Charlotte Wilder
• 1936 — Josephine Miles
• 1935 — Lola Ridge / Marya Zaturenska
• 1934 — Frances Frost / Lola Ridge
• 1932 — Archibald MacLeish
• 1931 — Lizette Woodworth Reese
• 1930 — Conrad Aiken

See also

• American poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of literary awards
• List of years in poetry
• List of years in literature

References