Poetry magazine wins National Magazine Award in the Category of Essays and Criticism
CHICAGO, IL, May 29, 2020 — The Poetry Foundation announces that “Tactile Art,” by John Lee Clark, published in Poetry’s October 2019 issue, won the 2020 National Magazine Award in the category of Essays and Criticism on Thursday, May 28, in an award ceremony hosted by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and the Columbia School of Journalism through a virtual celebration. Winners receive an “Ellie,” the symbol of the awards, modeled after Alexander Calder’s stabile “Elephant.”
“Poetry’s readers know that our longtime contributor John Lee Clark always teaches us to think differently about not only how art touches us, but how we can touch art,” Don Share, editor of Poetry, said. “A poet, essayist, anthologist, activist, and educator, Clark’s work never just sits on a page. Rather, it implores us to feel language, visual art, and life itself, as a tactile whole.”
Poetry remains committed to founder Harriet Monroe’s “Open Door” policy to “keep free of entangling alliances with any single class or school” by discovering new voices that speak to this time, this moment. Poetry regularly presents new work by the most famous poets in the world, and over half of all contributions are from poets appearing in the magazine for the first time – many before they become established figures.
This is the fourth ASME award the Poetry Foundation has received; in 2014, Poetry magazine took home the prize for General Excellence in the category of Literature, Science and Politics. The ASME awards are regarded as the “most prestigious in the magazine industry,” according to the New York Times.
About Poetry Magazine
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume I of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach. The magazine established its reputation early by publishing the first important poems of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, H.D., William Carlos Williams, Carl Sandburg, and other now-classic authors. In succeeding decades it has presented—often for the first time—work by virtually every major contemporary poet.
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.
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