May Swenson

       May Swenson, 1965.
       Photo by L.H. Clark.

The May Swenson Poetry Award


This annual competition, named for May Swenson, honors her as one of America's most provocative and vital writers. In John Hollander's words, she was "one of our few unquestionably major poets." During her long career, May was loved and praised by writers from virtually every major school of poetry. She left a legacy of nearly fifty years of writing when she died in 1989. She is buried in Logan, Utah, her hometown.

Winner of the 2008 Swenson Poetry Award


Mrs. Ramsay's Knee

by Idris Anderson

selected by Harold Bloom

 

Idris Anderson has published poems in The Hudson Review, The Nation, The Ontario Review, The Paris Review, Paris/Atlantic, South Carolina Review, Southern Poetry Review, Southern Humanities Review, and ZYZZYVA. In 1991, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher-Scholar grant, which she held in the Classics Department at Stanford University. She has a Ph.D. in Shakespeare studies from the University of South Carolina and an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Currently, she is Head of the English Department of Crystal Springs Uplands School, Hillsborough, California.

Mrs. Ramsay's Knee will be published in summer 2008.

Judge for the 2008/2009 competition will be


Billy Collins

An icon of the literary scene, distinguished poet and former Poet Laureate of the United States (2001--2003), Billy Collins is acclaimed for his many inimitable poetry volumes, for his public readings, and for his ongoing advocacy for the study and performance of poetry in the US.

Mr. Collins's other honors and awards include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1992, he was chosen by the New York Public Library to serve as "Literary Lion". Much in demand as a teacher, he conducts poetry workshops around the US and abroad, and has taught writing at many prestigious universities.

Among his published works are She Was Just Seventeen (2006), The Trouble with Poetry (2005); Nine Horses (2002); Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001); Picnic, Lightning (1998); The Art of Drowning (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Questions About Angels (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series; The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988); Video Poems (1980); and Pokerface (1977).

Guidelines

  1. Submitted collections must be original poetry in English, 50 to 100 pages

  2. No restrictions on form or subject

  3. Submit one copy of the manuscript

  4. Name/address on cover sheet only

  5. $25 reading fee (includes copy of winning book)

  6. Postmark deadline September 30

  7. SASE for announcement of winner

  8. Manuscript will not be returned

  9. Judge reserves the right to declare no winner in any given year

The winning manuscript receives a $1000 award, publication, and royalties. Address your entry to:

    May Swenson Poetry Award
    Utah State University Press
    7800 Old Main Hill
    Logan UT 84322-7800

Previous May Swenson Poetry Award Winners

2007
Neck of the World
poems by F. Daniel Rzicznek
foreword by Alice Quinn

2006
Haywire
poems by George Bilgere
foreword by Edward Field

2005
The Beautiful Lesson of the I
poems by Frances Brent
Foreword by Rachel Hadas

2004
Where She Always Was
poems by Frannie Lindsay
Foreword by J. D. McClatchy

2003
She Took Off Her Wings and Shoes
poems by Suzette Marie Bishop
Foreword by Alicia Ostriker

2002
The Owl Question
poems by Faith Shearin
Foreword by Mark Doty

2001
The Borgo of the Holy Ghost
poems by Stephen McLeod
Foreword by Richard Howard

2000
All That Divides Us
poems by Elinor Benedict
Foreword by Maxine Kumin

1999
Necessary Light
poems by Patricia Fargnoli
Foreword by Mary Oliver

1998
The Hammered Dulcimer
poems by Lisa Williams
Foreword by John Hollander

1997
Plato's Breath
poems by Randall R. Freisinger
Foreword by Herbert Leibowitz

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