2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship Winners Announced

We have some news for you today! Kaveh Akbar, Jos Charles, Angel Nafis, Alison C. Rollins, and Javier Zamora are this year's Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows. Each poet will be awarded $25,800 to encourage the further study and writing of poetry. Here's a little more about this year's award and fellows:

“Poets aren’t just makers, they are doers,” says Don Share, editor of Poetry magazine. “Each one of the 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows excels at both of these things. They have all already had a salutary influence on American poetry, and it’s an honor for us to support their distinctive and essential efforts in an art form that is reaching more people than ever before."

Established in 1989 by Ruth Lilly, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship program has dramatically expanded since its inception. Until 1995, university writing programs nationwide each nominated one student poet for a single fellowship; from 1996 until 2007, two fellowships were awarded. In 2008, the competition was opened to all U.S. poets between 21 and 31 years of age, and the number of fellowships increased to five, totaling $75,000. In 2013, the Poetry Foundation received a generous gift from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund to create the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships, which increased the fellowship amount from $15,000 to $25,800.

Head here to read the full press release, including bios of the awardees. Congrats to all!