Maurice English

Maurice English (October 21, 1909–November 18, 1983) was a poet, reporter, and author who is noted for having headed the presses of the University of Chicago, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Following English's death, his family established the Maurice English Poetry Award, which honors an author in his or her sixth (fifty or beyond) decade of life for a distinguished book of poems published during the preceding calendar year. The award acknowledges that Maurice English's first volume of poetry, Midnight in the Century, was published in his 55th year. The award carries an honorarium of $3,000 and a request for a public reading in Philadelphia. The award was first given in 1985 to Jane Cooper for Scaffolding: New and Selected Poems (1985).