Poetry Awards Announced

The Poetry Foundation, newly enriched by a major gift from an Indiana philanthropist, is using part of the largesse to fund a series of awards intended to raise the profiles of underrecognized poets. Some of the awards are so specific as to seem designed specifically for their winners – for instance, the “Emily Dickinson First Book Award, for an American poet older than 50 who has not yet published a book of poetry” – while others emphasize qualities frequently lacking in poetry, such as humor.