List of Poetry Awards - United States

United States

• Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize — awarded annually in memory of this celebrated poet, sponsored by the University of Utah Department of English and the University of Utah Press.
• Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize — for a first book of poetry
• Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry — annual prize, administered by the Sewanee Review and the University of the South, awarded to a writer who has had a substantial and distinguished career
• Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship — given annually to a U.S.-born poet to spend one year outside North America in a country the recipient feels will most advance his or her work
• Autumn House Press Poetry and Fiction Awards for full length book manuscripts
• Backwaters Press — Annual prize awarded to book length manuscript selected by guest judge.
• Beatrice Hawley Award— for an unpublished poetry collection by a U.S. resident
• Bernard F. Connors Prize for Poetry — Awarded by the editors of Paris Review for the best poem published in the magazine over the course of the year
• The Best American Poetry series, a maximum of 75 poems published each year in the anthology series
• Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry — Offered by the Library of Congress for the best book of poetry published by a living U.S. author during the preceding two years.
• Bollingen Prize — offered by Yale University every two years to one or more living U.S. poets for the best collection published in that period, or for lifetime achievement in poetry
• Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards — former series of annual anthologies (1948–1977) of poems selected as the best from each year's English-language magazines.
• Brittingham Prize in Poetry
• Chelsea Award for Poetry — given by Chelsea magazine
• Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards offers $3,500 for the first prize and $2,000 for the second prize
• Devins Award for Poetry
• Donald Justice Poetry Prize - sponsored by the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards at the West Chester University Poetry Center.
• Donna J. Stone National Literary Awards — Sponsored by the Matthew J. Pascal Foundation and American Mothers, Inc.
• Glascock Prize
• Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award
• Kate Tufts Discovery Award — $10,000 awarded to a first time poet
• Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award — highly lucrative $100,000 award for poet in mid career
• Lannan Literary Award for Poetry comes with $150,000
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry
• Maurice English Poetry Award — awarded for a volume of poetry published when a poet is more than 50 years old.
• National Book Award for Poetry
• National Book Critics Circle Award — given annually in poetry and in five other categories to promote the finest books and reviews published in English
• National Poetry Series — offered by the National Poetry Series through five participating publishers for a collection of poetry
• The New Criterion Poetry Prize, given by The New Criterion magazine
• O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize — awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library to a U.S. poet who has published at least one book within the last five years, has made important contributions as a teacher, and is committed to furthering the understanding of poetry
• PEN Award for Poetry in Translation — honoring a poetry translation published in the preceding year
• PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry — given biennially to an American poet whose distinguished and growing body of work to date represents a notable and accomplished presence in American literature
• Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
• Poets' Prize — awarded annually for the best book of verse published by an American in the previous calendar year
• Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
• Rhysling Award — two given out each year (one for a long poem, the other for a short poem), by the Science Fiction Poetry Association for the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poems
• Richard Wilbur Award
• Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize — offered by the Poetry Foundation for a U.S. poet "whose accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition."
• Strader Elementary Poetry Prize — awarded by Quattro Media for an outstanding poem by an elementary school student in Los Angeles County, California.
• T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry — publication prize awarded annually by Truman State University for the best unpublished collection in English. A distinct prize with the same name is awarded in the United Kingdom.
• Willis Barnstone Translation Prize — annual prize for an outstanding translation of a poem from any language into English.
• Witter Bynner Fellowships — Administered by the Library of Congress, the fellowships are sponsored by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, an organization that provides grant support for poetry programs through nonprofit organizations. Fellows are chosen by the Poet Laureate, and are expected to participate in a poetry reading at the Library of Congress in October and to organize a poetry reading in their respective cities.
• Witter Bynner Poetry Prize — established by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1980 to support the work of a young poet.
• Yale Series of Younger Poets — offered by Yale University Press to a poet under the age of forty for a first volume of poetry