Academy of American Poets
Encyclopedia
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry
. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934. It sponsors a portfolio of poetry awards, of which the first was a fellowship created in 1946 to support a poet and honor "distinguished achievement." In addition, the Academy fosters the readership of poetry through outreach activities such as National Poetry Month
.
In 1984 Robert Penn Warren
noted that "To have great poets there must be great audiences, Whitman said, to the more or less unheeding ears of American educators. Ambitiously, hopefully, the Academy has undertaken to remedy this plight." In 1998, Dinitia Smith described the Academy of American Poets as "a venerable body at the symbolic center of the American poetry establishment."
by Mrs. Marie Bullock with a mission to "support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry." In 1936, the Academy was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization
. Ms. Bullock was the president of the Academy for the next half a century, running the Academy out of her apartment for thirty of those years. She started the academy after her return from her studies at the Sorbonne
in Paris
. The Academy's webpages describe Bullock's motivation in creating the Academy as follows: "When Mrs. Bullock returned to the United States from her studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, she was dismayed to find a comparative indifference toward poetry in our country. Concerned about the lack of financial support given to poets in America and their inability to make a living from their art, she decided to take action. With the advice of friends such as poets Edwin Arlington Robinson
and Joseph Auslander
(the first Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress), Mrs. Bullock drew up the plans and started raising funds to nurture the cause of poetry and the survival of individual poets."
It administers several programs: National Poetry Month; online educational resources, including free poetry lesson plans for high school teachers; the Poetry Audio Archive, a collection of over 700 recordings dating back to the 1960s; and the website Poets.org.
There are seven major awards handed out by the Academy and over 200 college awards sponsored at schools across the country. The Academy also runs numerous programs, including Poets.org, the most popular site about poetry on the web; National Poetry Month (April), the largest literary celebration in the world; an array of Awards & Prizes for poets at every stage of their careers; American Poet, a biannual literary journal; a web forum; and the Poetry Audio Archive, which includes hundreds of recorded poetry readings dating back to the early 1960s.
In 1998, the operations of the Academy drew media attention when two of its chancellors, Maxine Kumin
and Carolyn Kizer
, resigned to protest the absence on the Academy's Board of Chancellors of African-Americans and other members of minorities. The Academy ultimately responded by designating several new chancellors, including African-American poets Lucille Clifton
and Yusef Komunyakaa
, and by making changes in its procedures.
In 2007, it was among over 530 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor
Michael Bloomberg
.
The award was first established in 1954 by a bequest from the wife of Thomas W. Lamont
, who specified that it be used "for the discovery and encouragement of new poetic genius." In 1959, Harvey Shapiro referred to the award as "roughly, a Pulitzer
for bardlings."
Initially, the Lamont Poetry Selection was awarded to a poet's first published book; copies of the book were purchased from its publisher for distribution to the Academy's members. In 1975, the Academy changed to selecting a poet's second published volume; in an editorial, Peter Davison
welcomed the change, suggesting that publishing a second volume was becoming more difficult than publishing the first.
In 1995, it was endowed by a gift from the Drue Heinz
Trust, and it was renamed to honor James Laughlin
, who founded the publishing house New Directions
in 1936. At present, winners receive a cash prize of $5,000 and the Academy purchases about 3000 volumes of the winning book for distribution to its membership; the purchase and distribution essentially guarantee that the book becomes "a bestseller in the tiny poetry market."
Edward Field has described the importance of receiving the Award to his career as follows:
Several of the Award's recipients have subsequently won the highest honors given to mature poets. Donald Hall
was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 2004. Donald Justice
, Lisel Mueller
, and Philip Schultz
have each won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
and her husband, James Marshall, to "support the arts and the cause of world peace"; Lenore Marshall, a poet, novelist, editor, and peace activist, had died in 1971. Receipt of the prize has been among the distinctions noted by the Library of Congress when the Poet Laureate of the United States is named.
The Prize was initially administered by the Saturday Review magazine. Following the folding of Saturday Review, the Prize was administered by The Nation
magazine. In 1995, administration of the Prize became the responsibility of the Academy; the Prize has a permanent endowment, and the cash value of the prize is currently $25,000. The Prize is still sponsored by The Nation, which usually publishes an article about the poetry of each year's finalists and winner.
The Academy currently announces three judges for each year's competition in advance. There has been some criticism of the Academy's procedures for mitigating the judges' conflicts of interest, since the judges are often acquainted with some of the poets whose volumes are nominated.
, the award is based on a competition of book-length poetry manuscripts by American poets who have not yet published a book. It has been described as "a transformative honor that includes publication and distribution of the book though the Academy, $5,000 in cash and a one-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center." The Library of Congress
includes the Award among distinctions noted for poets, as does the Poetry Foundation
and The New York Times, which also occasionally publishes articles about new awards.
The award was established in 1975. In a New York Times opinion piece from 1985, the novelist John Barth
noted that 1475 manuscripts had been entered into one of the Whitman Award competitions, which exceeded the number of subscribers to some poetry journals. Since 1992, Louisiana State University Press
has published each volume as part of its "Walt Whitman Award Series"; the Academy purchases and distributes copies to its associate members, along with copies of the winning volume for the James Laughlin Award. About 3000 copies are involved.
of poetry that is at least 40 pages in length and ran for more than 500 copies. It was initially awarded biannually until 1987 when it became an annual award. The winner received a $1,000 cash prize.
, the award was established in 1994 to "recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry" and presents winners a check for $100,000.
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934. It sponsors a portfolio of poetry awards, of which the first was a fellowship created in 1946 to support a poet and honor "distinguished achievement." In addition, the Academy fosters the readership of poetry through outreach activities such as National Poetry Month
National Poetry Month
National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States. It is celebrated every April in the United States and in Canada as well...
.
In 1984 Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
noted that "To have great poets there must be great audiences, Whitman said, to the more or less unheeding ears of American educators. Ambitiously, hopefully, the Academy has undertaken to remedy this plight." In 1998, Dinitia Smith described the Academy of American Poets as "a venerable body at the symbolic center of the American poetry establishment."
History
The academy was created in 1934 in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
by Mrs. Marie Bullock with a mission to "support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry." In 1936, the Academy was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
. Ms. Bullock was the president of the Academy for the next half a century, running the Academy out of her apartment for thirty of those years. She started the academy after her return from her studies at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The Academy's webpages describe Bullock's motivation in creating the Academy as follows: "When Mrs. Bullock returned to the United States from her studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, she was dismayed to find a comparative indifference toward poetry in our country. Concerned about the lack of financial support given to poets in America and their inability to make a living from their art, she decided to take action. With the advice of friends such as poets Edwin Arlington Robinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.- Biography :Robinson was born in Head Tide, Lincoln County, Maine, but his family moved to Gardiner, Maine, in 1870...
and Joseph Auslander
Joseph Auslander
Joseph Auslander was an American poet, anthologist, translator of poems, and novelist...
(the first Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress), Mrs. Bullock drew up the plans and started raising funds to nurture the cause of poetry and the survival of individual poets."
It administers several programs: National Poetry Month; online educational resources, including free poetry lesson plans for high school teachers; the Poetry Audio Archive, a collection of over 700 recordings dating back to the 1960s; and the website Poets.org.
There are seven major awards handed out by the Academy and over 200 college awards sponsored at schools across the country. The Academy also runs numerous programs, including Poets.org, the most popular site about poetry on the web; National Poetry Month (April), the largest literary celebration in the world; an array of Awards & Prizes for poets at every stage of their careers; American Poet, a biannual literary journal; a web forum; and the Poetry Audio Archive, which includes hundreds of recorded poetry readings dating back to the early 1960s.
In 1998, the operations of the Academy drew media attention when two of its chancellors, Maxine Kumin
Maxine Kumin
Maxine Kumin is an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1981-1982.-Early years:...
and Carolyn Kizer
Carolyn Kizer
Carolyn Ashley Kizer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism.-Life and work:...
, resigned to protest the absence on the Academy's Board of Chancellors of African-Americans and other members of minorities. The Academy ultimately responded by designating several new chancellors, including African-American poets Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton was an American writer and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979–1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland...
and Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...
, and by making changes in its procedures.
In 2007, it was among over 530 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
.
Academy Fellowship
One Academy Fellowship is awarded annually for "distinguished poetic achievement": Fellows are awarded a stipend which is presently $25,000. The Fellowship program was created in 1946, and was the first of the Academy's current portfolio of awards; the Academy's website describes it as "the first of its kind in the United States."James Laughlin Award
Formerly known as the Lamont Poetry Selection, the Laughlin Award is given in recognition of a poet's second published book, and is considered to be the only major award honoring excellent second books.The award was first established in 1954 by a bequest from the wife of Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas William Lamont, Jr. was an American banker.- Biography :Lamont was born in Claverack, New York. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1888 and earned his degree from Harvard University in 1892. He became a generous benefactor of the school once he had amassed a fortune, notably...
, who specified that it be used "for the discovery and encouragement of new poetic genius." In 1959, Harvey Shapiro referred to the award as "roughly, a Pulitzer
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.-Winners:...
for bardlings."
Initially, the Lamont Poetry Selection was awarded to a poet's first published book; copies of the book were purchased from its publisher for distribution to the Academy's members. In 1975, the Academy changed to selecting a poet's second published volume; in an editorial, Peter Davison
Peter Davison (poet)
Peter Davison was an American poet, essayist, teacher, lecturer, editor, and publisher....
welcomed the change, suggesting that publishing a second volume was becoming more difficult than publishing the first.
In 1995, it was endowed by a gift from the Drue Heinz
Drue Heinz
Drue Heinz, born Doreen Mary English, is a prominent patron of the literary arts in the United States.She is the publisher of the famous literary magazine The Paris Review, which was started in 1953 by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. Humes, and edited until his death in 2003...
Trust, and it was renamed to honor James Laughlin
James Laughlin
James Laughlin was an American poet and literary book publisher who founded New Directions Publishers.- Biography :He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Henry Hughart and Marjory Rea Laughlin...
, who founded the publishing house New Directions
New Directions Publishers
New Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and operates from New York City, and its books today are distributed by WW Norton & Company. Its...
in 1936. At present, winners receive a cash prize of $5,000 and the Academy purchases about 3000 volumes of the winning book for distribution to its membership; the purchase and distribution essentially guarantee that the book becomes "a bestseller in the tiny poetry market."
Edward Field has described the importance of receiving the Award to his career as follows:
Several of the Award's recipients have subsequently won the highest honors given to mature poets. Donald Hall
Donald Hall
Donald Hall is an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2006.-Personal life:...
was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 2004. Donald Justice
Donald Justice
Donald Justice was an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career, David Orr has written, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his...
, Lisel Mueller
Lisel Mueller
Lisel Mueller is an American poet.She was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1924 and immigrated to America at the age of 15. Her father, Fritz Neumann, was a professor at Evansville College. Her mother died in 1953. "Though my family landed in the Midwest, we lived in urban or suburban environments,"...
, and Philip Schultz
Philip Schultz
Philip Schultz is an American poet, and the founder/director of The Writers Studio, a private school for fiction and poetry writing based in New York City...
have each won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize is awarded annually for the best volume of poetry written by a living U.S. citizen and published in the previous year in the United States. The Prize was created in 1975 by the New Hope Foundation of Pennsylvania, which was a philanthropic foundation created by Lenore MarshallLenore Marshall
Lenore Guinzberg Marshall was an American poet, novelist, and activist.-Life:...
and her husband, James Marshall, to "support the arts and the cause of world peace"; Lenore Marshall, a poet, novelist, editor, and peace activist, had died in 1971. Receipt of the prize has been among the distinctions noted by the Library of Congress when the Poet Laureate of the United States is named.
The Prize was initially administered by the Saturday Review magazine. Following the folding of Saturday Review, the Prize was administered by The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
magazine. In 1995, administration of the Prize became the responsibility of the Academy; the Prize has a permanent endowment, and the cash value of the prize is currently $25,000. The Prize is still sponsored by The Nation, which usually publishes an article about the poetry of each year's finalists and winner.
The Academy currently announces three judges for each year's competition in advance. There has been some criticism of the Academy's procedures for mitigating the judges' conflicts of interest, since the judges are often acquainted with some of the poets whose volumes are nominated.
Walt Whitman Award
Named after poet Walt WhitmanWalt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
, the award is based on a competition of book-length poetry manuscripts by American poets who have not yet published a book. It has been described as "a transformative honor that includes publication and distribution of the book though the Academy, $5,000 in cash and a one-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center." The Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
includes the Award among distinctions noted for poets, as does the Poetry Foundation
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is a Chicago-based American foundation created to promote poetry in the wider culture. It was formed from Poetry magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Ruth Lilly....
and The New York Times, which also occasionally publishes articles about new awards.
The award was established in 1975. In a New York Times opinion piece from 1985, the novelist John Barth
John Barth
John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...
noted that 1475 manuscripts had been entered into one of the Whitman Award competitions, which exceeded the number of subscribers to some poetry journals. Since 1992, Louisiana State University Press
Louisiana State University Press
The Louisiana State University Press is a nonprofit book publisher and an academic unit of Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, the press publishes scholarly, general interest, and regional books as part of the university’s mission to disseminate knowledge and culture...
has published each volume as part of its "Walt Whitman Award Series"; the Academy purchases and distributes copies to its associate members, along with copies of the winning volume for the James Laughlin Award. About 3000 copies are involved.
Harold Morton Landon Translation Award
Established in 1976, the Landon Translation award is given in recognition for a published translationTranslation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
of poetry that is at least 40 pages in length and ran for more than 500 copies. It was initially awarded biannually until 1987 when it became an annual award. The winner received a $1,000 cash prize.
Wallace Stevens Award
Named for Wallace StevensWallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
, the award was established in 1994 to "recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry" and presents winners a check for $100,000.