Poetry Foundation Announces 2019 Pegasus Awards Winners, Marilyn Nelson Awarded Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

CHICAGO, May 7, 2019— The Poetry Foundation today announces Marilyn Nelson as the winner of the 2019 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Naomi Shihab Nye the 2019–2021 Young People’s Poet Laureate, and Terrance Hayes winner of the 2019 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism. The awards are sponsored and administered by the Poetry Foundation, an independent literary organization and publisher of Poetry magazine, and will be presented at the Pegasus Awards Ceremony at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago on Monday, June 10.

“As part of our mission, and core to Poetry magazine’s 106-year history, we celebrate the best poetry, and with these awards we honor some of the writers who bring it into the world today,” said Henry Bienen, president of the Poetry Foundation. “We’re honored to recognize the lifelong work of Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye’s dedication to young readers, and Terrance Hayes’s reimagination of Etheridge Knight’s body of work.”

Marilyn Nelson Awarded Highest Honor
The $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize annually honors a living US poet for outstanding lifetime achievement. It is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets and one of the nation’s largest literary prizes.

“Marilyn Nelson has been committed throughout her career to meticulously chronicling the contemporary and historical experience—and contributions—of Black people in America,” said Don Share, editor of Poetry magazine. “Everyone who cares about how life is lived and felt in this country should read her vivid and deeply considered work.”

Nelson is a renowned poet, author, and translator who has worked steadily throughout her career to highlight topics that aren’t often talked about in poetry. Her literary work, spanning more than four decades, examines complex issues around race, feminism, and the ongoing trauma of slavery in American life in narratives poised between song and speech. Nelson’s recent poem “The Boley Rodeo” appeared in the April 2019 issue of Poetry magazine and tells the story of Black ranchers in America.

She won the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2012, and is the author of three National Book Award finalist books: Carver: A Life in Poems, The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems, and The Homeplace. Also known for her work in children’s literature, in 2017 she was recognized with both the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, and the prestigious NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature.

She is currently a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, and was Connecticut’s poet laureate from 2001 to 2006.

First awarded in 1986 to Adrienne Rich, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize has been awarded to poets including Gary Snyder, C.K. Williams, W.S. Merwin, Joy Harjo, and most recently Martín Espada.

Naomi Shihab Nye Celebrated for Connection with Youth
The Young People’s Poet Laureate title and $25,000 prize celebrate a living writer in recognition of their devotion to writing exceptional poetry for young readers. This two-year-term laureateship promotes poetry to children and their families, teachers, and librarians.

Naomi Shihab Nye will serve from 2019 to 2021, aiming to bring poetry to geographically underserved, or rural communities through readings underwritten by the Poetry Foundation. In addition, every month during her tenure, which begins in August, she will recommend a new poetry book for young readers.

Nye is acclaimed as a children’s writer for her sensitivity and cultural awareness, such as in her book 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, published just after September 11, 2001, which invites readers to reflect and explore life as an Arab American. Also acclaimed for her work for adults, Nye’s writing moves seamlessly between ages in a way that is accessible, warm, and sophisticated even for the youngest of readers. Her poetry collections for young adults include Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners and A Maze Me: Poems for Girls.

Nye is the recipient of numerous honors, including a Lavan Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and many Pushcart Prizes. She has received many awards for her writing for children, including the NSK Neustadt Award for Children’s Literature in 2013, and the 2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award from the American Library Association.

Nye is currently a professor of creative writing at Texas State University.

She joins notable past winners, including Jack Prelutsky, Jacqueline Woodson, and most recently Margarita Engle.

Terrance Hayes Recognized for Etheridge Knight Criticism Collection
The $7,500 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism prize annually honors the best book-length works of criticism published in the prior calendar year; the award recognizes biographies, essay collections, and critical editions that consider the subject of poetry or poets.

Terrance Hayes wins for his book based on his Bagley Wright lectures To Float in the Space Between: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight. The adventurous book expands the concept of criticism into a conversation taking the reader on a journey to rediscover Knight’s work, including photos and drawings to accompany the prose. It was also a 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Criticism.

Most known for his poetry that considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity, Hayes is recognized with numerous awards, including the 2010 National Book Award for Lighthead, and his collections American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin and How to Be Drawn are National Book Award finalists.

Hayes is currently professor of English at New York University.

Previous Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism winners include Mark Ford’s This Dialogue of One: Essays on Poets from John Donne to Joan Murray, Robert Duncan’s The Collected Later Poems and Plays, and The Collected Essays and Other Prose, and most recently Liesl Olson’s Chicago Renaissance and The Poems of T.S. Eliot edited by Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue. 

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in American culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs.

Follow the Poetry Foundation and Poetry on Facebook at facebook.com/poetryfoundation,  facebook.com/poetryfoundationchildren, Twitter @PoetryFound and @Poetrymagazine, and Instagram @PoetryFoundation.


Media Contacts
Liz O’Connell-Thompson, Media Associate, [email protected], 312.799.8065
Sarah Whitcher, Marketing and Media Director, [email protected], 312.799.8016