Poetry Magazine Wins Ellie Award for General Excellence in Literature, Science and Politics

NEW YORK, NY — The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine are pleased to announce that Poetry magazine took the prize for General Excellence in the category of literature, science, and politics on Thursday, May 1 in an award ceremony hosted by The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and The Columbia School of Journalism. Poetry was nominated along with The American Scholar, MIT Technology Review, Mother Jones and Pacific Standard. The awards are called the Ellies in honor of the Alexander Calder stabile “Elephant” presented to the winners.

Don Share, editor of Poetry magazine, accepted the award for the February and September 2013 issues on behalf of former editor Christian Wiman, and for the November and December issues that were published during Share’s editorship.

 “It's an honor for Poetry—and also for poetry—to receive this kind of recognition, and in such distinguished company,” said Don Share.  “It really reaffirms the importance and standing of literary publishing in America.”

This is the third ASME award the Poetry Foundation has taken; in 2011, two awards were won: the Poetry podcast, a monthly conversation about the magazine with the editors, won a National Magazine Award for Digital Media and 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—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 partnerships, prizes, and programs. For more information, visit poetryfoundation.org.

POETRY FOUNDATION | 61 West Superior St. | Chicago, IL 60611 | 312.787.7070 | Media Contact: Elizabeth Burke-Dain, 312.799.8016; eburkedain@poetryfoundation.org