Yale Series of Younger Poets

The Tempering by Howard Buck, first winner in the Yale Series of Younger Poets, 1919. Courtesy Internet Archive.

The Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the first collection of a promising American poet. The contest was founded in 1919, and is the oldest annual literary award in the United States.

Each year the Press publishes one book-length manuscript by a United States citizen under the age of 40 who has not previously published a book of poetry. The winner receives royalties upon publication of the book. All poems must be original, and only one manuscript may be entered at a time.

History

The competition solidified its importance in American literature under the judgeship of Stephen Vincent Benet. Benet was judge, 1933–1942, followed by Archibald MacLeish, 1944-1946. Margaret Walker's For My People was the last volume selected by Benet.

The contest is regarded by some 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, and Colossus which was subsequently published in England.

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 to have revived the prize's stature, judged the award from 2003 to 2010. Carl Phillips is the current judge.

Past winners

This list is taken in part from The Yale Younger Poets Anthology (1998).

Volume	Year	Poet	Title
107	2013	Will Schutt	Westerly
106	2012	Eduardo C. Corral	Slow Lightning
105	2011	Katherine Larson	Radial Symmetry
104	2010	Ken Chen	Juvenilia
103	2009	Arda Collins	It is Daylight
102	2008	Fady Joudah	The Earth in the Attic
101	2007	Jessica Fisher	Frail-Craft
100	2006	Jay Hopler	Green Squall
99	2005	Richard Siken	Crush
98	2004	Peter Streckfus	The Cuckoo
97	2003	Loren Goodman	Famous Americans
96	2002	Sean Singer	Discography
95	2001	Maurice Manning	Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions
94	2000	Davis McCombs	Ultima Thule
93	1999	Craig Arnold	Shells
92	1997	Talvikki Ansel	My Shining Archipelago
91	1996	Ellen Hinsey	Cities of Memory
90	1995	Tony Crunk	Living in the Resurrection
89	1994	Valerie Wohlfeld	Thinking the World Visible
88	1993	Jody Gladding	Stone Crop
87	1992	Nicholas Samaras	Hands of the Saddlemaker
86	1991	Christiane Jacox Kyle	Bears Dancing in the Northern Air
85	1990	Daniel Hall	Hermit with Landscape
84	1989	Thomas Bolt	Out of the Woods
83	1988	Brigit Pegeen Kelly	To the Place of Trumpets
82	1987	Julie Agoos	Above the Land
81	1986	George Bradley	Terms to Be Met
80	1985	Pamela Alexander	Navigable Waterways
79	1984	Richard Kenney	The Evolution of the Flightless Bird
78	1983	Cathy Song	Picture Bride
77	1982	David Wojahn	Icehouse Lights
76	1981	John Bensko	Green Soldiers
75	1980	William Virgil Davis	One Way to Reconstruct the Scene
74	1979	Leslie Ullman	Natural Histories
73	1978	Bin Ramke	The Difference Between Night and Day
72	1977	Olga Broumas	Beginning with O
71	1976	Carolyn Forché	Gathering the Tribes
70	1975	Maura Stanton	Snow on Snow
69	1974	Michael Ryan	Threats Instead of Trees
68	1973	Robert Hass	Field Guide
67	1972	Michael Casey	Obscenities
66	1971	Peter Klappert	Lugging Vegetables to Nantucket
65	1970	Hugh Seidman	Collecting Evidence
64	1969	Judith Johnson Sherwin	Uranium Poems
63	1968	Helen Chasin	Coming Close and Other Poems
62	1967	James Tate	The Lost Pilot
61	1965	Jean Valentine	Dream Barker
60	1964	Peter Davison	The Breaking of the Day
59	1963	Sandra Hochman	Manhattan Pastures
58	1962	Jack Gilbert	Views of Jeopardy
57	1961	Alan Dugan	Poems
56	1960	George Starbuck	Bone Thoughts
55	1959	William Dickey	Of the Festivity
54	1958	John Hollander	A Crackling of Thorns
53	1957	James Wright	The Green Wall
52	1956	John Ashbery	Some Trees
51	1954	Daniel Hoffman	An Armada of Thirty Whales
50	1953	Edgar Bogardus	Various Jangling Keys
49	1952	W.S. Merwin	A Mask for Janus
48	1951	Adrienne Rich	A Change of World
47	1949	Rosalie Moore	The Grasshopper’s Man and Other Poems
46	1948	Robert Horan	A Beginning
45	1947	Joan Murray	Poems
44	1946	Eve Merriam	Family Circle
43	1945	Charles E. Butler	Cut Is the Branch
42	1944	William Meredith	Love Letters from an Impossible Land
41	1942	Margaret Walker	For My People
40	1941	Jeremy Ingalls	The Metaphysical Sword
39	1940	Norman Rosten	Return Again, Traveler
38	1939	Reuel Denney	The Connecticut River and Other Poems
37	1938	Joy Davidman	Letter to a Comrade
36	1937	Margaret Haley	The Gardener Mind
35	1936	Edward Weismiller	The Deer Come Down
34	1935	Muriel Rukeyser	Theory of Flight
33	1934	James Agee	Permit Me Voyage
32	1933	Shirley Barker	The Dark Hills Under
31	1932	Paul Engle	Worn Earth
30	1931	Dorothy Belle Flanagan (aka Dorothy B. Hughes)	Dark Certainty
29	1930	Louise Owen	Virtuosa
28	1929	Henri Faust	Half-Light and Overture
27	1929	Frances M. Frost	Hemlock Wall
26	1928	Francis Claiborne Mason	This Unchanging Mask
25	1928	Ted Olson	A Stranger and Afraid
24	1928	Mildred Bowers	Twist o’ Smoke
23	1927	Lindley Williams Hubbell	Dark Pavilion
22	1926	Thomas Hornsby Ferril	High Passage
21	1926	Eleanor Slater	Quest
20	1925	Dorothy E. Reid	Coach into Pumpkin
19	1924	Elizabeth Jessup Blake	Up and Down
18	1923	Beatrice E. Harmon	Mosaics
17	1923	Marion M. Boyd	Silver Wands
16	1923	Amos Niven Wilder	Battle-Retrospect
15	1923	Dean B. Lyman, Jr.	The Last Lutanist
14	1922	Paul Tanaquil	Attitudes
13	1922	Bernard Raymund	Hidden Waters
12	1922	Medora C. Addison	Dreams and a Sword
11	1922	Harold Vinal	White April
10	1921	Oscar Williams	Golden Darkness
9	1921	Hervey Allen	Wampum and Old Gold
8	1921	Viola C. White	Horizons
7	1921	Theodore H. Banks, Jr	Wild Geese
6	1920	Darl MacLeod Boyle	Where Lilith Dances
5	1920	Thomas Caldecot Chubb	The White God and Other Poems
4	1920	Alfred Raymond Bellinger	Spires and Poplars
3	1920	David Osborne Hamilton	Four Gardens
2	1919	John C. Farrar	Forgotten Shrines
1	1919	Howard Buck	The Tempering

See also

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

External links

• Yale Series of Younger Poets Official website.
• Past Winners
• review of the Yale Younger Poets' Anthology at Ralphmag.