Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Awarded annually, the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honors a living US poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. Established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly, the prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets.
2024 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
Li-Young Lee (he/him) is a poet and the author of The Invention of the Darling (W. W. Norton, 2024); The Undressing (W. W. Norton, 2018); Behind My Eyes…
2023 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2023Kimiko HahnKimiko Hahn is the author of 10 books of poetry, including Foreign Bodies (W. W. Norton, 2020); Brain Fever (Norton, 2014); Toxic Flora (Norton, 2010)…
2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2022Sandra CisnerosSandra Cisneros is a poet, a short story writer, a novelist, and an essayist who explores the lives of working-class people. Her numerous awards include…
2022CAConradCAConrad has worked with the ancient technologies of poetry and ritual since 1975. As a young poet, they lived in Philadelphia, where they lost many loved…
2022Rita DoveRita Dove (she/her) was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. A 1970 Presidential Scholar, she attended Miami University of Ohio, Universität Tübingen in Germany…
2022Nikki GiovanniPoet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk…
2022Juan Felipe HerreraThe son of farmworkers, poet Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, in 1948. He is a graduate of UCLA, Stanford University, and the University…
2022Angela JacksonAngela Jackson is a Chicago poet, playwright, and novelist. She has received numerous honors for both fiction and poetry, including the 2022 Ruth Lilly…
2022Haki R. MadhubutiDr. Haki R. Madhubuti, poet, author, publisher, and educator, is regarded as an architect of the Black Arts Movement and is founder and publisher of Chicago…
2022Sharon OldsPoet Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco and grew up in Berkeley, California where she was raised, she has said, as a “hellfire Calvinist.” …
2022Sonia SanchezSonia Sanchez was born in 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama. She earned her BA in political science from Hunter College in 1955, did postgraduate work at New…
2022Patti SmithPatti Smith was born in Chicago, raised in South Jersey, and moved to New York City in 1967. Her extensive achievements as a performer, an author, and…
2022Arthur SzeArthur Sze is a poet, a translator, and an editor. He is the author of 11 books of poetry, including The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems …
2021 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2021Patricia SmithPatricia Smith (she/her) has been called “a testament to the power of words to change lives.” She is the author of Unshuttered (Northwestern University…
2020 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2020Marilyn ChinMarilyn Chin was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Portland, Oregon. She earned a BA in Chinese literature from the University of Massachusetts and an …
2019 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2019Marilyn NelsonMarilyn Nelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, into a military family: she is the daughter of one of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen. Her mother was a teacher…
2018 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2018Martín EspadaAs a poet, essayist, translator, editor, and attorney, Martín Espada has dedicated much of his career to the pursuit of social justice, including fighting…
2017 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2017Joy HarjoJoy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She earned her BA from the University of New Mexico and MFA from…
2016 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2016Ed RobersonBorn and raised in Pittsburgh, Ed Roberson studied painting in his youth and was educated at the University of Pittsburgh. His extensive travels inform…
2015 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2015Alice NotleyAlice Notley has become one of America’s greatest living poets. She has long written in narrative and epic and genre-bending modes to discover new ways…
2014 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2014Nathaniel MackeyBorn in Miami and raised in Southern California, poet, novelist, editor, and critic Nathaniel Mackey earned his BA from Princeton University and his PhD…
2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2013Marie PonsotBorn in New York, poet and translator Marie Ponsot was the daughter of a teacher and a wine importer and was raised Catholic, a faith she kept her whole…
2012 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2012W. S. Di PieroW.S. Di Piero was born in 1945 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and earned his BA from St. Joseph’s College and MA from San Francisco State College. A poet…
2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2011David FerryDavid Ferry is an acclaimed American poet, professor, and translator. Ferry’s translations, which include some of the world's major works of poetry, are…
2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
- 2010Eleanor Ross Taylor
Eleanor Ross Taylor was born in 1920 in Norwood, North Carolina, and graduated from Women’s College, now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro…
2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2009Fanny HoweFanny Howe is the author of more than 20 books of poetry and prose. Howe grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and studied at Stanford University. “If …
2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2008Gary SnyderGary Snyder began his career in the 1950s as a noted member of the “Beat Generation,” though he has since explored a wide range of social and spiritual…
2007 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2007Lucille CliftonLucille Clifton was born in 1936 in DePew, New York, and grew up in Buffalo. She studied at Howard University, before transferring to SUNY Fredonia, near…
2006 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2006Richard WilburRichard Wilbur was born on March 1, 1921 in New York City. One of the most lauded and honored poets of 20th century American verse, Wilbur was the second…
2005 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2005C. K. WilliamsHailed by poet Paul Muldoon in the Times Literary Supplement as “one of the most distinguished poets of his generation,” C.K. Williams created a highly…
2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2004Kay RyanBorn in California in 1945 and acknowledged as one of the most original voices in the contemporary landscape, Kay Ryan is the author of several books …
2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2003Linda PastanPoet Linda Pastan was raised in New York City but has lived for most of her life in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC. In her senior year …
2002 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2002Lisel MuellerPoet and translator Lisel Mueller was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1924. The daughter of teachers, she and her family were forced to flee the Nazi regime…
2001 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2001Yusef KomunyakaaYusef Komunyakaa was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The son of a carpenter, Komunyakaa has said that he was first alerted to the power of language through…
2000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
2000Carl DennisCarl Dennis was born in 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri. He earned a BA from the University of Minnesota and a PhD from the University of California-Berkeley…
1999 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1999Maxine KuminAn enduring presence in American poetry, Maxine Kumin’s career spanned over half a century. Maxine Kumin (née Winokur) was born to a Reform Jewish family…
1998 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1998W. S. MerwinWilliam Stanley (W.S.) Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and raised in New Jersey and Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of a Presbyterian minister…
1996 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1996William MatthewsWilliam Matthews was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned a BA from Yale and MFA from the University of North Carolina. The author of eleven books of poetry…
1995 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1995A. R. AmmonsArchibald Randolph (A.R.) Ammons was born in rural North Carolina on February 18, 1926. His experiences growing up on a cotton and tobacco farm during…
1994 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1994Donald HallDonald Hall was considered one of the major American poets of his generation. His poetry explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects the…
1993 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1993Charles WrightCharles Wright is often ranked as one of the best American poets of his generation. Born in 1935 in Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, Wright attended Davidson …
1992 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1992John AshberyJohn Ashbery was recognized as one of the greatest 20th-century American poets. He won nearly every major American award for poetry, including the Pulitzer…
1991 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1991David WagonerDavid Wagoner was recognized as the leading poet of the Pacific Northwest, often compared to his early mentor Theodore Roethke, and highly praised for…
1990 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1990Hayden Carruth"Now and then a poet comes along whose work ranges across wide and diverse territories of form, attitude, and emotion—yet with the necessary intelligence…
1989 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1989Mona Van DuynPulitzer Prize-winning poet Mona Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa and raised in Eldora, Iowa. She earned a BA from Iowa State Teachers College and …
1988 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1988Anthony HechtAnthony Hecht was a renowned poet and critic. A longtime professor of poetry at the University of Rochester, Hecht also taught at institutions such as…
1987 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1987Philip LevinePhilip Levine was one of the leading poetic voices of his generation, “a large, ironic Whitman of the industrial heartland,” according to Edward Hirsch…
1986 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize RECIPIENT
1986Adrienne RichDuring her life, poet and essayist Adrienne Rich was one of America’s foremost public intellectuals. Widely read and hugely influential, Rich’s career…