The Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the first collection of a promising American poet. The contest was founded in 1919, and is the oldest annual literary award in the United States.
Each year the Press publishes one book-length manuscript by a United States citizen under the age of forty who has not previously published a book of poetry. The winner receives royalties upon publication of the book. All poems must be original, and only one manuscript may be entered at a time.
The contest solidified its importance in American literature under the judgeship of Stephen Vincent Benet.[1] Benet was judge, 1933–1942, followed by Archibald MacLeish, 1944 - 1946. Margaret Walker's For My People was the last volume selected by Benet. Auden assumed the judgeship after MacLeish. The contest is regarded by some [2] to have been at its height from 1947 to 1959, when W. H. Auden was choosing the winners. His then-young poets included Adrienne Rich, James Wright, W. S. Merwin, John Ashbery, and John Hollander. The period was also notable for the two-time refusal of Sylvia Plath's manuscript Two Lovers,[3] and Colossus which was subsequently published in England.[2] The 1969-1977 period, overseen by Stanley Kunitz, included volumes by Carolyn Forché and Robert Hass; Hass later became the Poet Laureate of the United States. The judgeship of W. S. Merwin, from 1998 to 2003, was fraught with controversy, as he refused to select a winner the first year that he was judge. Louise Glück, who is widely considered[4] to have revived the prize's stature, judged the award from 2003 to 2010. Carl Phillips is the current judge.
Contents |
This list is taken in part from The Yale Younger Poets Anthology (1998).[5]
Volume | Year | Poet | Title |
---|---|---|---|
105 | 2011 | Katherine Larson | Radial Symmetry |
104 | 2010 | Ken Chen | Juvenilia |
103 | 2009 | Arda Collins | It is Daylight |
102 | 2008 | Fady Joudah | The Earth in the Attic |
101 | 2007 | Jessica Fisher | Frail-Craft |
100 | 2006 | Jay Hopler | Green Squall |
99 | 2005 | Richard Siken | Crush |
98 | 2004 | Peter Streckfus | The Cuckoo |
97 | 2003 | Loren Goodman | Famous Americans |
96 | 2002 | Sean Singer | Discography |
95 | 2001 | Maurice Manning | Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions |
94 | 2000 | Davis McCombs | Ultima Thule |
93 | 1999 | Craig Arnold | Shells |
92 | 1997 | Talvikki Ansel | My Shining Archipelago |
91 | 1996 | Ellen Hinsey | Cities of Memory |
90 | 1995 | Tony Crunk | Living in the Resurrection |
89 | 1994 | Valerie Wohlfeld | Thinking the World Visible |
88 | 1993 | Jody Gladding | Stone Crop |
87 | 1992 | Nicholas Samaras | Hands of the Saddlemaker |
86 | 1991 | Christiane Jacox Kyle | Bears Dancing in the Northern Air |
85 | 1990 | Daniel Hall | Hermit with Landscape |
84 | 1989 | Thomas Bolt | Out of the Woods |
83 | 1988 | Brigit Pegeen Kelly | To the Place of Trumpets |
82 | 1987 | Julie Agoos | Above the Land |
81 | 1986 | George Bradley | Terms to Be Met |
80 | 1985 | Pamela Alexander | Navigable Waterways |
79 | 1984 | Richard Kenney | The Evolution of the Flightless Bird |
78 | 1983 | Cathy Song | Picture Bride |
77 | 1982 | David Wojahn | Icehouse Lights |
76 | 1981 | John Bensko | Green Soldiers |
75 | 1980 | William Virgil Davis | One Way to Reconstruct the Scene |
74 | 1979 | Leslie Ullman | Natural Histories |
73 | 1978 | Bin Ramke | The Difference Between Night and Day |
72 | 1977 | Olga Broumas | Beginning with O |
71 | 1976 | Carolyn Forché | Gathering the Tribes |
70 | 1975 | Maura Stanton | Snow on Snow |
69 | 1974 | Michael Ryan | Threats Instead of Trees |
68 | 1973 | Robert Hass | Field Guide |
67 | 1972 | Michael Casey | Obscenities |
66 | 1971 | Peter Klappert | Lugging Vegetables to Nantucket |
65 | 1970 | Hugh Seidman | Collecting Evidence |
64 | 1969 | Judith Johnson Sherwin | Uranium Poems |
63 | 1968 | Helen Chasin | Coming Close and Other Poems |
62 | 1967 | James Tate | The Lost Pilot |
61 | 1965 | Jean Valentine | Dream Barker |
60 | 1964 | Peter Davison | The Breaking of the Day |
59 | 1963 | Sandra Hochman | Manhattan Pastures |
58 | 1962 | Jack Gilbert | Views of Jeopardy |
57 | 1961 | Alan Dugan | Poems |
56 | 1960 | George Starbuck | Bone Thoughts |
55 | 1959 | William Dickey | Of the Festivity |
54 | 1958 | John Hollander | A Crackling of Thorns |
53 | 1957 | James Wright | The Green Wall |
52 | 1956 | John Ashbery | Some Trees |
51 | 1954 | Daniel Hoffman | An Armada of Thirty Whales |
50 | 1953 | Edgar Bogardus | Various Jangling Keys |
49 | 1952 | W. S. Merwin | A Mask for Janus |
48 | 1951 | Adrienne Rich | A Change of World |
47 | 1949 | Rosalie Moore | The Grasshopper’s Man and Other Poems |
46 | 1948 | Robert Horan | A Beginning |
45 | 1947 | Joan Murray | Poems |
44 | 1946 | Eve Merriam | Family Circle |
43 | 1945 | Charles E. Butler | Cut Is the Branch |
42 | 1944 | William Meredith | Love Letters from an Impossible Land |
41 | 1942 | Margaret Walker | For My People |
40 | 1941 | Jeremy Ingalls | The Metaphysical Sword |
39 | 1940 | Norman Rosten | Return Again, Traveler |
38 | 1939 | Reuel Denney | The Connecticut River and Other Poems |
37 | 1938 | Joy Davidman | Letter to a Comrade |
36 | 1937 | Margaret Haley | The Gardener Mind |
35 | 1936 | Edward Weismiller | The Deer Come Down |
34 | 1935 | Muriel Rukeyser | Theory of Flight |
33 | 1934 | James Agee | Permit Me Voyage |
32 | 1933 | Shirley Barker | The Dark Hills Under |
31 | 1932 | Paul Engle | Worn Earth |
30 | 1931 | Dorothy Belle Flanagan (aka Dorothy B. Hughes) | Dark Certainty |
29 | 1930 | Louise Owen | Virtuosa |
28 | 1929 | Henri Faust | Half-Light and Overture |
27 | 1929 | Frances M. Frost | Hemlock Wall |
26 | 1928 | Francis Claiborne Mason | This Unchanging Mask |
25 | 1928 | Ted Olson | A Stranger and Afraid |
24 | 1928 | Mildred Bowers | Twist o’ Smoke |
23 | 1927 | Lindley Williams Hubbell | Dark Pavilion |
22 | 1926 | Thomas Hornsby Ferril | High Passage |
21 | 1926 | Eleanor Slater | Quest |
20 | 1925 | Dorothy E. Reid | Coach into Pumpkin |
19 | 1924 | Elizabeth Jessup Blake | Up and Down |
18 | 1923 | Beatrice E. Harmon | Mosaics |
17 | 1923 | Marion M. Boyd | Silver Wands |
16 | 1923 | Amos Niven Wilder | Battle-Retrospect |
15 | 1923 | Dean B. Lyman, Jr. | The Last Lutanist |
14 | 1922 | Paul Tanaquil | Attitudes |
13 | 1922 | Bernard Raymund | Hidden Waters |
12 | 1922 | Medora C. Addison | Dreams and a Sword |
11 | 1922 | Harold Vinal | White April |
10 | 1921 | Oscar Williams | Golden Darkness |
9 | 1921 | Hervey Allen | Wampum and Old Gold |
8 | 1921 | Viola C. White | Horizons |
7 | 1921 | Theodore H. Banks, Jr | Wild Geese |
6 | 1920 | Darl MacLeod Boyle | Where Lilith Dances |
5 | 1920 | Thomas Caldecot Chubb | The White God and Other Poems |
4 | 1920 | Alfred Raymond Bellinger | Spires and Poplars |
3 | 1920 | David Osborne Hamilton | Four Gardens |
2 | 1919 | John C. Farrar | Forgotten Shrines |
1 | 1919 | Howard Buck | The Tempering |