Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award was established in 1994 by The Formalist
The Formalist
The Formalist: A Journal of Metrical Poetry was a literary periodical, edited by William Baer, which was published twice a year from 1990 to the fall/winter issue of 2004.The Formalist published contemporary, metrical verse...

, a poetry magazine founded by William Baer

William Baer

William Baer is an award-winning American writer, editor, translator, and educator.The author of sixteen books, he's a former Fulbright and a Guggenheim fellow, as well as the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing grant....

. The award honors the poet Howard Nemerov

Howard Nemerov

Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...

, who died in 1991. It is an open competition for sonnet

Sonnet

A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...

s in English that draws about 3000 entries annually. The award itself is $1000. From 1995-2004, the sonnets by the winner and by eleven finalists were published in The Formalist; following the discontinuation of The Formalist in 2004, the winning and eleven finalist poems have been published in the literary magazine Measure. The creation of the award is associated with the "New Formalism

New Formalism

New Formalism is a late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical and rhymed verse.-Origins and intentions:...

" movement of late 20th Century poetry.

List of winners

The winners and final judges from 1994-2008 are posted on a webpage of The Formalist; References for subsequent winners are provided in the table.

**Past Winners**
Year	Poet	Sonnet	Judge
2010 2010 in literature The year 2010 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:February - The Wheeler Centre, Australia's "literary hub", officially opened.April 3 - First release of the Apple iPad, electronic book reading device....	Catherine Chandler	Coming to Terms	A. E. Stallings A. E. Stallings Alicia Elsbeth Stallings is an American poet and translator. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow-Background:Stallings was raised in Decatur, Georgia and studied classics at the University of Georgia and University of Oxford. She is an editor with the Atlanta Review. In 1999, Stallings moved...
2009 2009 in literature The year 2009 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*8 October - Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller wins the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature....	Richard Wakefield Richard Wakefield Richard Wakefield is an American poet, and literary critic.He has taught at the University of Washington Tacoma, and The Evergreen State College.He teaches at Tacoma Community College.-Life:He is poetry critic for the Seattle Times....	Petrarch	David Middleton David Middleton David Barrie Middleton is a former English cricketer. Middleton was a right-handed batsman who played primarily as a wicketkeeper...
2008 2008 in literature The year 2008 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:January 1 - In the 2008 New Year Honours, Hanif Kureishi , Jenny Uglow , Peter Vansittart and Debjani Chatterjee are all rewarded for "services to literature".June 15 - Gore Vidal, asked in a New York Times...	Stephen Scaer	Sightseers	Timothy Steele Timothy Steele Timothy Steele is an American poet and academic. Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1948, he is a professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles. Some of Steele's early verse appeared in X. J. Kennedy's Counter/Measures in the early seventies. He went on to become a figure in the...
2007 2007 in literature The year 2007 in literature involves some significant new books.-Events:November 19 - First Kindle e-book reader released.December 11 - Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.-Literature:...	A. M. Juster	No	Frederick Turner Frederick Turner (poet) is an American poet, polymath and academic. He is the author of two science fiction epic poems, The New World and Genesis, several books of poetry, and a number of scholarly works on topics ranging from beauty and the biological basis of artistic production and appreciation to complexity and Julius...
2006 2006 in literature The year 2006 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Literature:Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Half of a Yellow SunChris Adrian - The Children's Hospital *Martin Amis - House of Meetings...	Robert W. Crawford	The Empty Chair	Andrew Hudgins Andrew Hudgins Andrew Hudgins is an American poet.His book The Never-Ending: New Poems was a finalist for the National Book Awards, After the Lost War: A Narrative received the Poetry Prize; and Saints and Strangers , which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.He is also the author of a book of essays, The...
2005 2005 in literature The year 2005 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 25 - Canada Reads selects Rockbound by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation....	Marion Shore	Petrarch on West 115th Street	Charles Martin
2004 2004 in literature The year 2004 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Last Crossing to be read across the nation....	A. E. Stallings A. E. Stallings Alicia Elsbeth Stallings is an American poet and translator. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow-Background:Stallings was raised in Decatur, Georgia and studied classics at the University of Georgia and University of Oxford. She is an editor with the Atlanta Review. In 1999, Stallings moved...	Hank Williams Blues	Rachel Hadas Rachel Hadas Rachel Hadas is an American poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. Her most recent essay collection is Classics: Essays , and her most recent poetry collection is The Ache of Appetite . Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ingram Merrill Foundation Grants, the O.B...
2003 2003 in literature The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell TalesAtsuko Asano - No...	Rhina Espaillat Rhina Espaillat Rhina Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932 and has lived in the United States since 1939. She taught English in the New York City public schools for many years, and retired to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where for more than a decade she has led a group of New Formalist poets known...	Discovery	Dana Gioia Dana Gioia -Poetry:It was as a poet that Gioia first began to attract widespread attention in the early 1980s, with frequent appearances in The Hudson Review, Poetry, and The New Yorker. In the same period, he published a number of essays and book reviews...
2002 2002 in literature The year 2002 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 16: Authorities in Saudi Arabia arrested and jailed poet Abdul Mohsen Musalam and fired a newspaper editor following the publication of Musalam's poem The Corrupt on Earth that criticized the state's Islamic...	Marion Shore	Embarking	Wyatt Prunty Wyatt Prunty Wyatt Prunty is an American poet and author associated with the New Formalism movement. He is the author of eight collections of poetry and two books of criticism and is a frequent reviewer and essayist for poetry and literary journals...
2001 2001 in literature The year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is released to movie theaters...	Deborah Warren Deborah Warren Deborah Warren is an American poet.She graduated from Harvard University, with a BA in English.She worked as a teacher of Latin and English, and a software engineer....	Baggage	X. J. Kennedy X. J. Kennedy X. J. Kennedy is a poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and writer of children's literature and student textbooks on English literature and poetry.-Beginnings and academic career:...
2000 2000 in literature The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published...	A. M. Juster	Note from Echo	W. D. Snodgrass
1999 1999 in literature The year 1999 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*June 19 - Stephen King is hit by a Dodge van while taking a walk. He spends the next three weeks hospitalized...	Bob McKenty	Chain Poem	Wendy Cope Wendy Cope Wendy Cope, OBE is an award-winning contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely with the poet Lachlan Mackinnon.-Biography:...
1998 1998 in literature The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....	Rhina Espaillat Rhina Espaillat Rhina Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic in 1932 and has lived in the United States since 1939. She taught English in the New York City public schools for many years, and retired to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where for more than a decade she has led a group of New Formalist poets known...	Contingencies	John Frederick Nims John Frederick Nims John Frederick Nims was an American poet and academic.-Life:He graduated from DePaul University, University of Notre Dame with an M.A., and from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in 1945.He published reviews of the works by Robert Lowell and W. S. Merwin...
1997 1997 in literature The year 1997 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Tom Clancy signs a book deal with Pearson Custom Publishing and Penguin Putnam Inc. , giving him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books . A second agreement gives him another US$25 million for a...	Madeleine Mysko	Incipient Fireworks	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...
1996 1996 in literature The year 1996 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is removed from an advanced placement English reading list in Lindale, Texas because it "conflicted with the values of the community." In the United Kingdom, the first...	Timothy Murphy Timothy Murphy (poet) Timothy Murphy is an American poet, farmer, and businessman. He has published two collections of poetry that have been widely reviewed...	The Track of the Storm	Anthony Hecht Anthony Hecht Anthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.-Early years:Hecht was born in New York...
1995 1995 in literature The year 1995 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea is opened by Jimmy Carter....	A. M. Juster	Moscow Zoo	Mona Van Duyn Mona Van Duyn Mona Jane Van Duyn was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1992.-Early years:Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She grew up in the small town of Eldora Mona Jane Van Duyn (9 May 1921 – 2 December 2004) was an American poet. She was...
1994 1994 in literature The year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi SearchReed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat*Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power...	Sarah Birnbaum	Jo Painted	Richard Wilbur Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....

List of winners

See also