Poetry Wins National Magazine Award for General Excellence

CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is proud to announce that the magazine has won the National Magazine Award for “General Excellence, Print” in the “Literary, Political and Professional Magazines” category. Poetry shared distinguished company with fellow finalists Lapham’s Quarterly, The Paris Review, The Sun, and Virginia Quarterly Review. This is the second Ellie for the magazine this year—the Poetry Magazine podcast won the National Magazine Award for Digital Media in the “Podcasting” category in March 2011.

The American Society of Magazine Editors’ awards for print journalism have been presented each year since 1966. The awards, sponsored by ASME in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, are regarded as the “most prestigious in the magazine industry,” according to the New York Times.

“We are so grateful for this honor. We’re turning the corner on our centennial, and Poetry magazine couldn’t be happier,” said magazine editor Christian Wiman. “Poetry is alive and well in the 21st century.”

“What a way to turn 100,” added Poetry Foundation president John Barr.

Launched in Chicago in 1912 by founding editor Harriet Monroe, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Today, Poetry remains dedicated to its original editorial mission: the magazine seeks to discover new voices, present new work by internationally recognized poets, and enliven discussion about and readership for contemporary poetry.

As Monroe wrote in the October 1912 issue, the magazine “is a modest effort to give to poetry her own place, her own voice . . . We believe that there is a public for poetry, that it will grow, and that as it becomes more numerous and appreciative the work produced in this art will grow in power, in beauty, in significance.”

The National Magazine Award recognition “fulfills Harriet Monroe’s original dream for the art form,” says senior editor Don Share. “After one hundred years, Poetry has been recognized in both digital and print.”

Establishing its reputation early, Poetry published 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. More than a third of the authors published in the magazine in recent years have been writers appearing for the first time.

By showcasing both established and emerging poets alongside provocative reviews, essays, and criticism, Poetry sparks conversation and brings new readers to the art form. And it does so in innovative ways. Submitted to the American Society of Magazine Editors for consideration in the 2011 National Magazine Awards were the April 2010 issue, which featured questions and answers with both established poets—2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Rae Armantrout, H.L. Hix, and Jane Hirshfield—and newer talents—Sina Queyras, Cathy Park Hong, and Spencer Reece; the September 2010 issue, which presented new work by Wisława Szymborska and Yusef Komunyakaa, among other talents; and the October 2010 issue, which offered a collection of poems from 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Eleanor Ross Taylor and the late Rachel Wetzsteon, a conversation between critic Ange Mlinko and Iain McGilchrist about poetry and neuroscience, and Fanny Howe’s look at an unearthed poetry manuscript from the Holocaust.

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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—works 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 our 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. For more information, please visit www.poetryfoundation.org.