Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

The **Pulitzer Prize for Poetry** is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes given every year for *Books, Drama, and Music*. It was first given in 1922.

The prize is given "For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author." That means it is given for an important book of original poetry. The book must be published during the calendar year before the prize is given.

Since 1980, two finalists (other important books) have been named at the same time as the winner.

## 1918 and 1919 special prizes
Before the establishment of the award, the 1918 and 1919 Pulitzer cycles included three Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards (called at the time the Columbia University Poetry Prize) for poetry books funded by "a special grant from The Poetry Society."
* 1918: ***Love Songs*** by Sara Teasdale
* 1919: ***Cornhuskers*** by Carl Sandburg
* 1919: ***The Old Road to Paradise*** by Margaret Widdemer

## Winners
In its first 92 years to 2013, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry was awarded 92 times. Two were given in 2008, none in 1946. Robert Frost won the prize four times and some other poets won it more than once).

### 1920s
* 1922: ***Collected Poems*** by Edwin Arlington Robinson
* 1923: ***"The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"***, *A Few Figs from Thistles*, and "Eight Sonnets", by Edna St. Vincent Millay
* 1924: ***New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes*** by Robert Frost
* 1925: ***The Man Who Died Twice*** by Edwin Arlington Robinson
* 1926: '''''What's O'Clock*** by Amy Lowell
* 1927: ***Fiddler's Farewell*** by Leonora Speyer
* 1928: ***Tristram*** by Edwin Arlington Robinson
* 1929: ***John Brown's Body*** by Stephen Vincent Benét

### 1930s
* 1930: ***Selected Poems*** by Conrad Aiken
* 1931: ***Collected Poems*** by Robert Frost
* 1932: ***The Flowering Stone*** by George Dillon
* 1933: ***Conquistador*** by Archibald MacLeish
* 1934: ***Collected Verse*** by Robert Hillyer
* 1935: ***Bright Ambush*** by Audrey Wurdemann
* 1936: ***Strange Holiness*** by Robert P. T. Coffin
* 1937: ***A Further Range*** by Robert Frost
* 1938: ***Cold Morning Sky*** by Marya Zaturenska
* 1939: ***Selected Poems*** by John Gould Fletcher

### 1940s
* 1940: ***Collected Poems*** by Mark Van Doren
* 1941: ***Sunderland Capture*** by Leonard Bacon
* 1942: ***The Dust Which Is God*** by William Rose Benét
* 1943: ***A Witness Tree*** by Robert Frost
* 1944: ***Western Star*** by Stephen Vincent Benét
* 1945: ***V-Letter and Other Poems*** by Karl Shapiro
* 1946: no award given
* 1947: ***Lord Weary's Castle*** by Robert Lowell
* 1948: ***The Age of Anxiety*** by W. H. Auden
* 1949: ***Terror and Decorum*** by Peter Viereck

### 1950s
* 1950: ***Annie Allen*** by Gwendolyn Brooks
* 1951: ***Complete Poems*** by Carl Sandburg
* 1952: ***Collected Poems*** by Marianne Moore
* 1953: ***Collected Poems 1917-1952*** by Archibald MacLeish
* 1954: ***The Waking*** by Theodore Roethke
* 1955: ***Collected Poems*** by Wallace Stevens
* 1956: ***Poems: North & South — A Cold Spring*** by Elizabeth Bishop
* 1957: ***Things of This World*** by Richard Wilbur
* 1958: ***Promises: Poems 1954-1956*** by Robert Penn Warren
* 1959: ***Selected Poems 1928-1958*** by Stanley Kunitz

### 1960s
* 1960: ***Heart's Needle*** by W. D. Snodgrass
* 1961: ***Times Three: Selected Verse From Three Decades*** by Phyllis McGinley
* 1962: ***Poems*** by Alan Dugan
* 1963: ***Pictures from Brueghel*** by William Carlos Williams
* 1964: ***At The End Of The Open Road*** by Louis Simpson
* 1965: ***77 Dream Songs*** by John Berryman
* 1966: ***Selected Poems*** by Richard Eberhart
* 1967: ***Live or Die*** by Anne Sexton
* 1968: ***The Hard Hours*** by Anthony Hecht
* 1969: ***Of Being Numerous*** by George Oppen

### 1970s
* 1970: ***Untitled Subjects*** by Richard Howard
* 1971: ***The Carrier of Ladders*** by W. S. Merwin
* 1972: ***Collected Poems*** by James Wright
* 1973: ***Up Country*** by Maxine Kumin
* 1974: ***The Dolphin*** by Robert Lowell
* 1975: ***Turtle Island*** by Gary Snyder
* 1976: ***Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror*** by John Ashbery
* 1977: ***Divine Comedies*** by James Merrill
* 1978: ***Collected Poems*** by Howard Nemerov
* 1979: ***Now and Then''''' by Robert Penn Warren

### 1980s
Indented entries are finalists after each year's winner.
* 1980: ***Selected Poems*** by Donald Justice
** *Goshawk, Antelope* by Dave Smith
** *Selected Poems* by Richard Hugo
* 1981: ***The Morning of the Poem*** by James Schuyler
** *Selected Poems* by Mark Strand 
** *The Right Madness on Skye* by Richard Hugo 
* 1982: ***The Collected Poems*** by Sylvia Plath
** *Dream Flights* by Dave Smith 
** *The Southern Cross* by Charles Wright
* 1983: ***Selected Poems*** by Galway Kinnell
** *Country Music, Selected Early Poems* by Charles Wright
** *Monolithos, Poems 1962 and 1982* by Jack Gilbert
* 1984: ***American Primitive*** by Mary Oliver
** *Collected Poems, 1930-1982* by Josephine Miles
** *Weather-Fear: New and Selected Poems* by John Engels
* 1985: ***Yin*** by Carolyn Kizer
** *Ground Work* by Robert Duncan
** *The Other Side of the River* by Charles Wright
* 1986: ***The Flying Change*** by Henry S. Taylor
** *Saints and Strangers* by Andrew Hudgins
** *Selected Poems, 1963-1983* by Charles Simic
* 1987: ***Thomas and Beulah*** by Rita Dove
** *The Selected Poetry of Hayden Carruth* by Hayden Carruth
** *Unending Blues* by Charles Simic
* 1988: ***Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems*** by William Meredith
** *Flesh and Blood* by C.K. Williams
** *Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980* and *Next: New Poems* by Lucille Clifton
* 1989: ***New and Collected Poems*** by Richard Wilbur
** *The One Day* by Donald Hall
** *The River of Heaven* by Garrett Hongo

### 1990s
Indented entries are finalists after each year's winner.

* 1990: '''''The World Doesn't End'''* by Charles Simic
** *Selected and Last Poems* by Paul Zweig
** *Time's Power* by Adrienne Rich
*** 
* 1991: ***Near Changes*** by Mona Van Duyn
** *Leaving Another Kingdom* by Gerald Stern
** *The Transparent Man* by Anthony Hecht
* 1992: ***Selected Poems*** by James Tate
** *An Atlas of the Difficult World* by Adrienne Rich
** *Selected Poems* by Robert Creeley
* 1993: ***The Wild Iris*** by Louise Glück
** *Hotel Lautreamont* by John Ashbery
** *Selected Poems 1946-1985* by James Merrill
* 1994: ***Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems*** by Yusef Komunyakaa
** *Bright Existence* by Brenda Hillman
** *The Metamorphoses of Ovid* by Allen Mandelbaum
* 1995: ***The Simple Truth*** by Philip Levine
** *Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992* by Allen Ginsberg
** *On The Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988* and *One Train* by Kenneth Koch
* 1996: ***The Dream of the Unified Field*** by Jorie Graham
** *Chickamauga* by Charles Wright
** *New and Selected Poems* by Donald Justice
* 1997: ***Alive Together: New and Selected Poems*** by Lisel Mueller
** *The Figured Wheel* by Robert Pinsky
** *The Willow Grove* by Laurie Sheck
* 1998: ***Black Zodiac*** by Charles Wright
** *Desire* by Frank Bidart
** *The Vigil* by C.K. Williams
* 1999: ***Blizzard of One*** by Mark Strand
** *Going Fast* by Frederick Seidel
** *Mysteries of Small Houses'' by Alice Notley

### 2000s
Indented entries are finalists after each year's winner. Two prizes were awarded in 2008.

* 2000: ***Repair*** by C. K. Williams
** *Elegy for the Southern Drawl* by Rodney Jones
** *Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998* by Adrienne Rich
* 2001: ***Different Hours*** by Stephen Dunn
** *Pursuit of a Wound* by Sydney Lea
** *The Other Lover* by Bruce Smith
* 2002: ***Practical Gods*** by Carl Dennis
** *The Beforelife* by Franz Wright
** *The Seven Ages* by Louise Glück
* 2003: ***Moy Sand and Gravel*** by Paul Muldoon
** *Hazmat* by J. D. McClatchy
** *Music Like Dirt* by Frank Bidart
* 2004: '''''Walking to Martha's Vineyard'''* by Franz Wright
** *Eyeshot* by Heather McHugh
** *Middle Earth* by Henri Cole
* 2005: ***Delights & Shadows*** by Ted Kooser
** *Search Party: Collected Poems* by William Matthews
** *The Orchard* by Brigit Pegeen Kelly
* 2006: ***Late Wife*** by Claudia Emerson
** *American Sublime* by Elizabeth Alexander
** *Elegy on Toy Piano* by Dean Young
* 2007: ***Native Guard*** by Natasha Trethewey
** *Interrogation Palace: New & Selected Poems 1982-2004* by David Wojahn
** *The Republic of Poetry* by Martín Espada
* 2008: ***Time and Materials*** by Robert Hass and ***Failure*** by Philip Schultz
** *Messenger: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2006* by Ellen Bryant Voigt
* 2009: ***The Shadow of Sirius*** by W. S. Merwin
** *Watching the Spring Festival* by Frank Bidart
** *What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems'' by Ruth Stone

### 2010s
Indented entries are finalists after each year's winner. 

* 2010: ***Versed*** by Rae Armantrout
** *Inseminating the Elephant* by Lucia Perillo
** *Tryst* by Angie Estes
* 2011: ***The Best of It: New and Selected Poems*** by Kay Ryan
** *Break the Glass* by Jean Valentine
** *The Common Man* by Maurice Manning
* 2012: ***Life on Mars*** by Tracy K. Smith
** *Core Samples from the World* by Forrest Gander
** *How Long* by Ron Padgett
* 2013: '''''Stag's Leap'''* by Sharon Olds
** *Collected Poems* by Jack Gilbert
** *The Abundance of Nothing* by Bruce Weigl
* 2014: ***3 Sections*** by Vijay Seshadri
** *The Big Smoke* by Adrian Matejka
** *The Sleep of Reason* by Morri Creech
* 2015: ***Digest*** by Gregory Pardlo
** *Compass Rose* by Arthur Sze
** *Reel to Reel* by Alan Shapiro
* 2016: ***Ozone Journal*** by Peter Balakian
** *Alive: New and Selected Poems* by Elizabeth Willis
** *Four-Legged Girl* by Diane Seuss
* 2017: ***Olio*** by Tyehimba Jess
** *Collected Poems: 1950-2012* by Adrienne Rich
** *XX* by Campbell McGrath
* 2018: ***Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016*** by Frank Bidart
** *Incendiary Art*, by Patricia Smith
** *semiautomatic*, by Evie Shockley
* 2019: ***Be With*** by Forrest Gander
** *feeld* by Jos Charles
** *Like'' by A.E. Stallings

### 2020s
Indented entries are finalists after each year's winner. 

* 2020: ***The Tradition*** by Jericho Brown
** *Dunce* by Mary Ruefle
** *Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems* by Dorianne Laux
* 2021: ***Postcolonial Love Poem*** by Natalie Diaz
** *A Treatise on Stars* by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
** *In the Lateness of the World* by Carolyn Forché
* 2022: ***frank: sonnets*** by Diane Seuss
** *Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten* by Will Alexander
** *Yellow Rain* by Mai Der Vang

## References