Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published during the preceding calendar year.

Finalists have been announced since 1980, ordinarily two others beside 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." See Special Pulitzers for Letters.

Pulitzer Special Prizes for Poetry, 1918 and 1919
Year Poet Title
1918 Sara Teasdale Love Songs
1919 Carl Sandburg Cornhuskers
1919 Margaret Widdemer The Old Road to Paradise

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 several others won it more than once (below).

1920s–1970s

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners, 19221979
Year Poet Title Ref.
1922 Edwin Arlington Robinson Collected Poems
1923 Edna St. Vincent Millay "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver," "A Few Figs from Thistles," and "Eight Sonnets"
1924 Robert Frost New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes
1925 Edwin Arlington Robinson The Man Who Died Twice
1926 Amy Lowell What's O'Clock
1927 Leonora Speyer Fiddler's Farewell
1928 Edwin Arlington Robinson Tristram
1929 Stephen Vincent Benét John Brown's Body
1930 Conrad Aiken Selected Poems
1931 Robert Frost Collected Poems
1932 George Dillon The Flowering Stone
1933 Archibald MacLeish Conquistador
1934 Robert Hillyer Collected Verse
1935 Audrey Wurdemann Bright Ambush
1936 Robert P. T. Coffin Strange Holiness
1937 Robert Frost A Further Range
1938 Marya Zaturenska Cold Morning Sky
1939 John Gould Fletcher Selected Poems
1940 Mark Van Doren Collected Poems
1941 Leonard Bacon Sunderland Capture
1942 William Rose Benét The Dust Which Is God
1943 Robert Frost A Witness Tree
1944 Stephen Vincent Benét Western Star
1945 Karl Shapiro V-Letter and Other Poems
1946 No award given
1947 Robert Lowell Lord Weary's Castle
1948 W. H. Auden The Age of Anxiety
1949 Peter Viereck Terror and Decorum
1950 Gwendolyn Brooks Annie Allen
1951 Carl Sandburg Complete Poems
1952 Marianne Moore Collected Poems
1953 Archibald MacLeish Collected Poems 1917-1952
1954 Theodore Roethke The Waking
1955 Wallace Stevens Collected Poems
1956 Elizabeth Bishop Poems: North & South — A Cold Spring
1957 Richard Wilbur Things of This World
1958 Robert Penn Warren Promises: Poems 1954-1956
1959 Stanley Kunitz Selected Poems 1928-1958
1960 W. D. Snodgrass Heart's Needle
1961 Phyllis McGinley Times Three: Selected Verse From Three Decades
1962 Alan Dugan Poems
1963 William Carlos Williams Pictures from Brueghel
1964 Louis Simpson At the End of the Open Road
1965 John Berryman 77 Dream Songs
1966 Richard Eberhart Selected Poems
1967 Anne Sexton Live or Die
1968 Anthony Hecht The Hard Hours
1969 George Oppen Of Being Numerous
1970 Richard Howard Untitled Subjects
1971 W. S. Merwin The Carrier of Ladders
1972 James Wright Collected Poems
1973 Maxine Kumin Up Country
1974 Robert Lowell The Dolphin
1975 Gary Snyder Turtle Island
1976 John Ashbery Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror
1977 James Merrill Divine Comedies
1978 Howard Nemerov Collected Poems
1979 Robert Penn Warren Now and Then

1980s

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners, 19801989
Year Poet Title Result Ref.
1980 Donald Justice Selected Poems Winner
Richard Hugo Selected Poems Finalist
Dave Smith Goshawk, Antelope Finalist
1981 James Schuyler The Morning of the Poem Winner
Richard Hugo The Right Madness on Skye Finalist
Mark Strand Selected Poems Finalist
1982 Sylvia Plath The Collected Poems Winner
Dave Smith Dream Flights Finalist
Charles Wright The Southern Cross Finalist
1983 Galway Kinnell Selected Poems Winner
Jack Gilbert Monolithos, Poems 1962 and 1982 Finalist
Charles Wright Country Music, Selected Early Poems Finalist
1984 Mary Oliver American Primitive Winner
John Engels Weather-Fear: New and Selected Poems Finalist
Josephine Miles Collected Poems, 1930-1982 Finalist
1985 Carolyn Kizer Yin Winner
Robert Duncan Ground Work Finalist
Charles Wright The Other Side of the River Finalist
1986 Henry S. Taylor The Flying Change Winner
Andrew Hudgins Saints and Strangers Finalist
Charles Simic Selected Poems, 1963-1983 Finalist
1987 Rita Dove Thomas and Beulah Winner
Hayden Carruth The Selected Poetry of Hayden Carruth Finalist
Charles Simic Unending Blues Finalist
1988 William Meredith Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems Winner
Lucille Clifton Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 and Next: New Poems Finalist
C.K. Williams Flesh and Blood Finalist
1989 Richard Wilbur New and Collected Poems Winner
Donald Hall The One Day Finalist
Garrett Hongo The River of Heaven Finalist

1990s

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners, 19901999
Year Poet Title Result Ref.
1990 Charles Simic The World Doesn't End Winner
Adrienne Rich Time's Power Finalist
Paul Zweig Selected and Last Poems Finalist
1991 Mona Van Duyn Near Changes Winner
Anthony Hecht The Transparent Man Finalist
Gerald Stern Leaving Another Kingdom Finalist
1992 James Tate Selected Poems Winner
Robert Creeley Selected Poems Finalist
Adrienne Rich An Atlas of the Difficult World Finalist
1993 Louise Glück The Wild Iris Winner
John Ashbery Hotel Lautreamont Finalist
James Merrill Selected Poems 1946-1985 Finalist
1994 Yusef Komunyakaa Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems Winner
Brenda Hillman Bright Existence Finalist
Allen Mandelbaum The Metamorphoses of Ovid Finalist
1995 Philip Levine The Simple Truth Winner
Allen Ginsberg Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992 Finalist
Kenneth Koch On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988 and One Train Finalist
1996 Jorie Graham The Dream of the Unified Field Winner
Donald Justice New and Selected Poems Finalist
Charles Wright Chickamauga Finalist
1997 Lisel Mueller Alive Together: New and Selected Poems Winner
Robert Pinsky The Figured Wheel Finalist
Laurie Sheck The Willow Grove Finalist
1998 Charles Wright Black Zodiac Winner
Frank Bidart Desire Finalist
C.K. Williams The Vigil Finalist
1999 Mark Strand Blizzard of One Winner
Alice Notley Mysteries of Small Houses Finalist
Frederick Seidel Going Fast Finalist

2000s

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners, 20002009
Year Poet Title Result Ref.
2000 C. K. Williams Repair Winner
Rodney Jones Elegy for the Southern Drawl Finalist
Adrienne Rich Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998 Finalist
2001 Stephen Dunn Different Hours Winner
Sydney Lea Pursuit of a Wound Finalist
Bruce Smith The Other Lover Finalist
2002 Carl Dennis Practical Gods Winner
Louise Glück The Seven Ages Finalist
Franz Wright The Beforelife Finalist
2003 Paul Muldoon Moy Sand and Gravel Winner
Frank Bidart Music Like Dirt Finalist
J. D. McClatchy Hazmat Finalist
2004 Franz Wright Walking to Martha's Vineyard Winner
Henri Cole Middle Earth Finalist
Heather McHugh Eyeshot Finalist
2005 Ted Kooser Delights & Shadows Winner
William Matthews Search Party: Collected Poems Finalist
Brigit Pegeen Kelly The Orchard Finalist
2006 Claudia Emerson Late Wife Winner
Elizabeth Alexander American Sublime Finalist
Dean Young Elegy on Toy Piano Finalist
2007 Natasha Trethewey Native Guard Winner
Martín Espada The Republic of Poetry Finalist
David Wojahn Interrogation Palace: New & Selected Poems 1982-2004 Finalist
2008 Robert Hass Time and Materials Winner
Philip Schultz Failure Winner
Ellen Bryant Voigt Messenger: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2006 Finalist
2009 W. S. Merwin The Shadow of Sirius Winner
Frank Bidart Watching the Spring Festival Finalist
Ruth Stone What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems Finalist

2010s

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners, 20102019
Year Poet Title Result Ref.
2010 Rae Armantrout Versed Winner
Angie Estes Tryst Finalist
Lucia Perillo Inseminating the Elephant Finalist
2011 Kay Ryan The Best of It: New and Selected Poems Winner
Maurice Manning The Common Man Finalist
Jean Valentine Break the Glass Finalist
2012 Tracy K. Smith Life on Mars Winner
Forrest Gander Core Samples from the World Finalist
Ron Padgett How Long Finalist
2013 Sharon Olds Stag's Leap Winner
Jack Gilbert Collected Poems Finalist
Bruce Weigl The Abundance of Nothing Finalist
2014 Vijay Seshadri 3 Sections Winner
Morri Creech The Sleep of Reason Finalist
Adrian Matejka The Big Smoke Finalist
2015 Gregory Pardlo Digest Winner
Alan Shapiro Reel to Reel Finalist
Arthur Sze Compass Rose Finalist
2016 Peter Balakian Ozone Journal Winner
Diane Seuss Four-Legged Girl Finalist
Elizabeth Willis Alive: New and Selected Poems Finalist
2017 Tyehimba Jess Olio Winner
Campbell McGrath XX Finalist
Adrienne Rich Collected Poems: 1950-2012 Finalist
2018 Frank Bidart Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016 Winner
Evie Shockley semiautomatic, Finalist
Patricia Smith Incendiary Art Finalist
2019 Forrest Gander Be With Winner
Jos Charles feeld Finalist
A.E. Stallings Like Finalist

2020s

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners, 2020present
Year Poet Title Result Ref.
2020 Jericho Brown The Tradition Winner
Dorianne Laux Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems Finalist
Mary Ruefle Dunce Finalist
2021 Natalie Diaz Postcolonial Love Poem Winner
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge A Treatise on Stars Finalist
Carolyn Forché In the Lateness of the World Finalist
2022 Diane Seuss frank: sonnets Winner
Will Alexander Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten Finalist
Mai Der Vang Yellow Rain Finalist
2023 Carl Phillips Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007–2020 Winner
Jay Hopler Still Life Finalist
dg nanouk okpik Blood Snow Finalist

Multiple wins and nominations

The following individuals received two or more Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry (The 1918 and 1919 Special Prizes are included):

Wins Poet Years
4 Robert Frost 1924, 1931, 1937, 1943
3 Edwin Arlington Robinson 1922, 1925, 1928
2 Stephen Vincent Benét 1929, 1944
Robert Lowell 1947, 1974
Archibald MacLeish 1933, 1953
William S. Merwin 1971, 2009
Carl Sandburg 1919, 1951
Robert Penn Warren 1958, 1979
Richard Wilbur 1957, 1989

The following individuals received two or more nominations:

Bolded years are years that the poet won

Nominations Poet Years
5 Charles Wright 1982, 1983, 1985, 1996, 1998
4 Frank Bidart 1998, 2003, 2009, 2018
Robert Frost 1924, 1931, 1937, 1943
Adrienne Rich 1990, 1992, 2000, 2017
3 Edwin Arlington Robinson 1922, 1925, 1928
Charles Simic 1986, 1987, 1990
2 John Ashbery 1976, 1993
Stephen Vincent Benét 1929, 1944
Forrest Gander 2012, 2019
Jack Gilbert 1983, 2013
Louise Glück 1993, 2002
Anthony Hecht 1968, 1991
Richard Hugo 1980, 1981
Donald Justice 1980, 1996
Robert Lowell 1947, 1974
Archibald MacLeish 1933, 1953
James Merril 1977, 1993
William S. Merwin 1971, 2009
Carl Sandburg 1919, 1951
Diane Seuss 2016, 2022
Mark Strand 1981, 1999
Dave Smith 1980, 1982
Robert Penn Warren 1958, 1979
Richard Wilbur 1957, 1989
C.K. Williams 1988, 1998
Franz Wright 2002, 2004

Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times from 1924 to 1943. Edwin Arlington Robinson won three prizes during the 1920s and several people, all male, have won two.

Carl Sandburg won one of the special prizes for his poetry in 1919 and won the Poetry Pulitzer in 1951.

Only three women have had multiple nominations: Adrienne Rich with 4, and Louise Glück and Diane Seuss with 2 each.

See also


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