Yale Series of Younger Poets

The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the United States.

Yale Series of Younger Poets

Centennial logo^[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Discipline	Poetry
Publisher	Yale University Press
Published	Annually since 1919 (1919)
No. of books	114
OCLC	1605127
Website	youngerpoets.yupnet.org

Each year, the Younger Poets Competition accepts submissions from American poets who have not previously published a book of poetry. Once the judge has chosen a winner, the Press publishes a book-length manuscript of the winner's poetry as the next volume in the series. All poems must be original, and only one manuscript may be entered at a time.

Rules and eligibility

Contest requirements were first articulated in the summer of 1920. The series had already published four books, all written by Yale students, and the judges sought to attract a nationwide pool of applicants. A promotional statement gave the following, somewhat vague eligibility requirements: "Anyone is eligible provided he (or she) is young and comparatively unknown. The age limit is understood to be about thirty."^[2] A formal set of rules was adopted in 1924.^[3] In addition to specifying page limits and other manuscript requirements, these new rules limited the contest to American citizens younger than 30.^[4] However, current rules allow poets of any age who have not published a book of poetry to be considered.^[5] Although the contest was briefly opened to any writer of English-language poetry under Auden's judgeship, it has remained limited to American citizens ever since.^[6]

History

 

The Tempering (1919) by Howard Buck is the first volume in the series.

The Younger Poets Series was established in 1919 by Clarence Day, whose brother George Parmly Day had founded Yale University Press with his wife Wilhelmine in 1908.^[7] The competition's first judge, Charlton Miner Lewis, was a prominent professor in Yale's English department.^[8] The inaugural competition took place after the end of World War I, just as an influx of young veterans returned from fighting in Europe and entered college.^[9] Modernist poetry emerged in this period, but early entries in the series reflected the neoclassical tastes of the older generation adjudicating the competition, all men who had received degrees from Yale in the late-19th century.^[10] The anglophilic publishers were heavily influenced by English poetry, especially the contemporary Georgian poetry, and the competition itself was directly influenced by the similar "Adventures All" poetry series of Oxford University Press.^[11]

The contest solidified its importance in American literature under the judgeship of Stephen Vincent Benét.^[12] Benet was judge from 1933 to 1942, followed by Archibald MacLeish from 1944 to 1946. Margaret Walker's For My People was the last volume selected by Benet. Auden assumed the judgeship after MacLeish. The contest is regarded by some^[13] to have been at its height from 1947 to 1959, when W. H. Auden was choosing the winners. His then-young poets included Adrienne Rich, James Wright, W. S. Merwin, John Ashbery, and John Hollander. The period was also notable for the two-time refusal of Sylvia Plath's manuscript Two Lovers,^[14] and Colossus which was subsequently published in England.^[13] The 1969–1977 period, overseen by Stanley Kunitz, included volumes by Carolyn Forché and Robert Hass; Hass later became the Poet Laureate of the United States. The judgeship of W. S. Merwin, from 1998 to 2003, was fraught with controversy, as he refused to select a winner the first year that he was judge. Louise Glück, who is widely considered^[15] to have revived the prize's stature, judged the award from 2003 to 2010. Rae Armantrout is the current judge.

Judges

• Judges of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition^[16]
•  

  Charlton M. Lewis
  (1919–1923)

•  

  Frederick E. Pierce
  (1923)

•  

  Edward Bliss Reed
  (1923–24)

•  

  William Alexander Percy
  (1925–1932)

•  

  Stephen Vincent Benét
  (1933–1942)

•  

  Archibald MacLeish
  (1942–1945)

•  

  W. H. Auden
  (1946–1958)

•  

  Dudley Fitts
  (1958–1968)

•  

  Stanley Kunitz
  (1969–1976)

•  

  Richard Hugo
  (1946–1958)

•  

  James Merrill
  (1983–1989)

•  

  James Dickey
  (1990–1996)

•  

  W. S. Merwin
  (1997–2003)

•  

  Louise Glück
  (2003–2010)

•  

  Carl Phillips
  (2011–2020)

•  

  Rae Armantrout (2021–present)

Past winners

The year column provides the date of the competition. The winning poetry collections are published the following year.

Year	Vol.	Poet	Title	Judge	Ref.
1918	1	Howard Buck	The Tempering	Charlton M. Lewis	^[17]
	2	John C. Farrar	Forgotten Shrines		^[17]
1919	3	David Osborne Hamilton	Four Gardens		^[17]
	4	Alfred Raymond Bellinger	Spires and Poplars		^[17]
	5	Thomas Caldecot Chubb	The White God and Other Poems		^[17]
	6	Darl MacLeod Boyle	Where Lilith Dances		^[17]
1920	7	Theodore H. Jr. Banks	Wild Geese		^[18]
	8	Viola C. White	Horizons		^[18]
	9	Hervey Allen	Wampum and Old Gold		^[18]
	10	Oscar Williams	Golden Darkness		^[18]
1921	11	Harold Vinal	White April		^[18]
	12	Medora C. Addison	Dreams and a Sword		^[18]
	13	Bernard Raymund	Hidden Waters		^[18]
	14	Paul Tanaquil	Attitudes		^[18]
1922	15	Dean B. Jr. Lyman	The Last Lutanist		^[18]
	16	Amos Niven Wilder	Battle-Retrospect		^[18]
	17	Marion M. Boyd	Silver Wands	Frederick E. Pierce	^[18]
	18	Beatrice E. Harmon	Mosaics		^[18]
1923	19	Elizabeth Jessup Blake	Up and Down	Edward Bliss Reed	^[18]
1924	20	Dorothy E. Reid	Coach into Pumpkin	William Alexander Percy	^[19]
1925	21	Eleanor Slater	Quest		^[19]
	22	Thomas Hornsby Ferril	High Passage		^[19]
1926	23	Lindley Williams Hubbell	Dark Pavilion		^[19]
1927	24	Mildred Bowers	Twist o' Smoke		^[19]
	25	Ted Olson	A Stranger and Afraid		^[19]
	26	Francis Claiborne Mason	This Unchanging Mask		^[19]
1928	27	Frances M. Frost	Hemlock Wall		^[19]
	28	Henri Faust	Half-Light and Overture		^[19]
1929	29	Louise Owen	Virtuosa		^[19]
1930	30	Dorothy Belle Flanagan (aka Dorothy B. Hughes)	Dark Certainty		^[19]
1931	31	Paul Engle	Worn Earth		^[19]
1932	32	Shirley Barker	The Dark Hills Under	Stephen Vincent Benét	^[20]
1933	33	James Agee	Permit Me Voyage		^[20]
1934	34	Muriel Rukeyser	Theory of Flight		^[20]
1935	35	Edward Weismiller	The Deer Come Down		^[20]
1936	36	Margaret Haley	The Gardener Mind		^[20]
1937	37	Joy Davidman	Letter to a Comrade		^[20]
1938	38	Reuel Denney	The Connecticut River and Other Poems		^[20]
1939	39	Norman Rosten	Return Again, Traveler		^[20]
1940	40	Jeremy Ingalls	The Metaphysical Sword		^[21]
1941	41	Margaret Walker	For My People		^[21]
1942	No winner selected			Archibald MacLeish	^[21]
1943	42	William Morris Jr. Meredith	Love Letters from an Impossible Land		^[21]
1944	43	Charles E. Butler	Cut Is the Branch		^[21]
1945	44	Eve Merriam	Family Circle		^[21]
1946	45	Joan Murray	Poems	W. H. Auden	^[21]
1947	46	Robert Horan	A Beginning		^[21]
1948	47	Rosalie Moore	The Grasshopper's Man and Other Poems		^[22]
1949	No winner selected				^[22]
1950	48	Adrienne Rich	A Change of World		^[22]
1951	49	W. S. Merwin	A Mask for Janus		^[22]
1952	50	Edgar Bogardus	Various Jangling Keys		^[22]
1953	51	Daniel Hoffman	An Armada of Thirty Whales		^[22]
1954	No winner selected				^[22]
1955	52	John Ashbery	Some Trees		^[22]
1956	53	James Wright	The Green Wall		^[22]
1957	54	John Hollander	A Crackling of Thorns		^[23]
1958	55	William Dickey	Of the Festivity		^[23]
1959	56	George Starbuck	Bone Thoughts	Dudley Fitts	^[23]
1960	57	Alan Dugan	Poems		^[23]
1961	58	Jack Gilbert	Views of Jeopardy		^[23]
1962	59	Sandra Hochman	Manhattan Pastures		^[23]
1963	60	Peter Davison	The Breaking of the Day		^[23]
1964	61	Jean Valentine	Dream Barker		^[24]
1965	No winner selected				^[24]
1966	62	James Tate	The Lost Pilot		^[24]
1967	63	Helen Chasin	Coming Close and Other Poems		^[24]
1968	64	Judith Johnson Sherwin	Uranium Poems		^[24]
1969	65	Hugh Seidman	Collecting Evidence	Stanley Kunitz	^[24]
1970	66	Peter Klappert	Lugging Vegetables to Nantucket		^[24]
1971	67	Michael Casey	Obscenities		^[25]
1972	68	Robert Hass	Field Guide		^[25]
1973	69	Michael Ryan	Threats Instead of Trees		^[25]
1974	70	Maura Stanton	Snow on Snow		^[25]
1975	71	Carolyn Forché	Gathering the Tribes		^[25]
1976	72	Olga Broumas	Beginning with O		^[25]
1977	73	Bin Ramke	The Difference Between Night and Day	Richard Hugo	^[25]
1978	74	Leslie Ullman	Natural Histories		^[25]
1979	75	William Virgil Davis	One Way to Reconstruct the Scene		^[26]
1980	76	John Bensko	Green Soldiers		^[26]
1981	77	David Wojahn	Icehouse Lights		^[26]
1982	78	Cathy Song	Picture Bride		^[26]
1983	79	Richard Kenney	The Evolution of the Flightless Bird	James Merrill	^[26]
1984	80	Pamela Alexander	Navigable Waterways		^[26]
1985	81	George Bradley	Terms to Be Met		^[26]
1986	82	Julie Agoos	Above the Land		^[27]
1987	83	Brigit Pegeen Kelly	To the Place of Trumpets		^[27]
1988	84	Thomas Bolt	Out of the Woods		^[27]
1989	85	Daniel Hall	Hermit with Landscape		^[27]
1990	86	Christiane Jacox Kyle	Bears Dancing in the Northern Air	James Dickey	^[27]
1991	87	Nicholas Samaras	Hands of the Saddlemaker		^[27]
1992	88	Jody Gladding	Stone Crop		^[27]
1993	89	Valerie Wohlfeld	Thinking the World Visible		^[27]
1994	90	Tony Crunk	Living in the Resurrection		^[28]
1995	91	Ellen Hinsey	Cities of Memory		^[28]
1996	92	Talvikki Ansel	My Shining Archipelago		^[28]
1997	No winner selected			W. S. Merwin	^[29]
1998	93	Craig Arnold	Shells		^[30]
1999	94	Davis McCombs	Ultima Thule		^[30]
2000	95	Maurice Manning	Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions		^[30]
2001	96	Sean Singer	Discography		^[30]
2002	97	Loren Goodman	Famous Americans		^[30]
2003	98	Peter Streckfus	The Cuckoo		^[30]
2004	99	Richard Siken	Crush	Louise Glück	^[30]
2005	100	Jay Hopler	Green Squall		^[30]
2006	101	Jessica Fisher	Frail-Craft		^[30]
2007	102	Fady Joudah	The Earth in the Attic		^[30]
2008	103	Arda Collins	It Is Daylight		^[30]
2009	104	Ken Chen	Juvenilia		^[30]
2010	105	Katherine Larson	Radial Symmetry		^[30]
2011	106	Eduardo C. Corral	Slow Lightning	Carl Phillips	^[30]
2012	107	Will Schutt	Westerly		^[30]
2013	108	Eryn Green	Eruv		^[30]
2014	109	Ansel Elkins	Blue Yodel		^[30]
2015	110	Noah Warren	The Destroyer in the Glass		^[30]
2016	111	Airea D. Matthews	simulacra		^[30]
2017	112	Duy Doan	We Play a Game		^[30]
2018	113	Yanyi	The Year of Blue Water		^[30]
2019	114	Jill Osier	The Solace Is Not the Lullaby		^[31]
2020	115	Desiree C. Bailey	What Noise Against The Cane		^[32]
2021	116	Robert Wood Lynn	Mothman Apologia	Rae Armantrout	^[33]
2022	117	Mary-Alice Daniel	Mass for Shut-Ins		^[33]
2023	118	Cindy Juyoung Ok	Ward Toward		^[33]

See also

• American poetry
• List of poetry awards
• List of literary awards
• List of years in poetry
• List of years in literature

References

Citations

1. Yale University Press 2019, p. 1.
2. Bradley 1998, p. xxix.
3. Bradley 1998, pp. xxxiii–xxxiv.
4. Bradley 1998, p. xxxiv.
5. "Yale Series of Younger Poets Rules". from the original on 2022-12-28. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
6. Bradley 1998, p. xxxiv–xxxv.
7. Bradley 1998, p. xxii.
8. Bradley 1998, pp. xxiv–xxvi.
9. Bradley 1998, p. xxi.
10. Bradley 1998, pp. xxii–xxiii.
11. Bradley 1998, pp. xxiii–xxiv.
12. Bradley 1998, p. 50.
13. Davison 1998.
14. Alexander 2003, pp. 208–209.
15. O'Rourke 2008.
16. Phillips 2019, p. 389.
17. Bradley 1998, p. v.
18. Bradley 1998, p. vi.
19. Bradley 1998, p. vii.
20. Bradley 1998, p. viii.
21. Bradley 1998, p. ix.
22. Bradley 1998, p. x.
23. Bradley 1998, p. xi.
24. Bradley 1998, p. xii.
25. Bradley 1998, p. xiii.
26. Bradley 1998, p. xiv.
27. Bradley 1998, p. xv.
28. Bradley 1998, p. xvi.
29. Phillips 2019b.
30. Phillips 2019, p. 392.
31. Harriet staff 2019.
32. "Yale Series of Younger Poets Winners". Yale University Press. from the original on 24 June 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
33. Yale Series of Younger Poets Winners.

Sources

• Anon. (March 13, 2013). "Eryn Green Wins Yale Younger Poets Prize". Poets & Writers. from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
• Anon. (February 17, 2015). "Carl Phillips Chooses Noah Warren As 2015 Yale Series Of Younger Poets Winner". Yale University Press. from the original on May 22, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
• Anon. (2019). "Yale Series of Younger Poets – Celebrating 100 Years [brochure]" (PDF). Yale University Press. (PDF) from the original on November 16, 2019.
• Alexander, Paul (2003). Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Path (2nd. ed.). Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81299-6. from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2019-11-18 – via Google Books.
• Bradley, George, ed. (1998). The Yale Younger Poets Anthology. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07472-7 – via the Internet Archive (registration required).
• Davison, Peter (June 1998). "Discovering Young Poets". The Atlantic. from the original on 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2017-03-12.
• Kellogg, Carolyn (March 3, 2014). "Yale Younger Poets Prize goes to Ansel Elkins". Los Angeles Times. from the original on August 7, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
• O'Rourke, Meghan (August 2008). "On Louise Glück and the Yale Series of Younger Poets". The Kenyon Review. from the original on 2013-02-26. Retrieved 2012-09-03.
• Phillips, Carl, ed. (2019). Firsts: 100 Years of Yale Younger Poets. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24316-1 – via Google Books.
• ——— (October 23, 2019). "The Yale Younger Poets Prize: A Microcosm of the American Poetry Landscape". Literary Hub. from the original on October 29, 2019.
• Harriet staff (5 March 2019). "Yale Younger Poets Prize Winner Announced by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. from the original on 2 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.

External links

• Official website