The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as

Witter Bynner Harold Witter Bynner (August 10, 1881 – June 1, 1968), also known by the pen name Emanuel Morgan, was an American poet and translator. He was known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and association with other literary figures the ...

, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes,

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of he ...

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood ...

, and

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

History

In 1910, the Poetry Society of America held its first official meeting in the National Arts Club in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, which is still home to the organization today. Jessie Belle Rittenhouse, a founding member and Secretary of the PSA, documented the founding of the Poetry Society of America in her autobiography ''My House of Life'' writing "It was not, however, to be an organization in the formal sense of the word, but founded upon the salon idea, a place where poets would gather to read and discuss their work and that of their contemporaries, the group to be united largely through the hospitality of our hosts at whose apartments it was proposed we should continue to meet...When, after much enthusiastic speech-making, a committee was appointed to retire and discuss the details, I had no hesitancy in saying—though at the risk of seeming ungrateful to our hosts—that it was much too big an idea to be narrowed down to a social function, into which it would inevitably deteriorate, and if the Society were developed at all, it ought to be along national lines, and should meet in a public rather than a private place." Within the first few years, poets such as

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febru ...

, Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats regularly attended meetings.

Poetry In Motion

In 1992 the Poetry Society launched Poetry in Motion along with the New York City MTA in the New York City subway system, a program which has since placed poetry in the transit systems of over 20 cities throughout the country such as: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Portland, and Salt Lake City. The program has been honored with numerous awards including a Design for Transportation Merit Award, the New York Municipal Society's Certificate of Merit, and in 2000 a proclamation from the Council of the City of New York that honored the program for its "invaluable contribution to the people of New York City."

Pulitzer Prize

The Poetry Society was instrumental in the establishment of a

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

. In 1917, after the first Pulitzer prizes were awarded, Society member Edward J. Wheeler petitioned the President of Columbia University to include poetry as an award category. After receiving a reply from the President that there had been no funds allocated to award a prize in poetry, Wheeler secured $500 on behalf of the Society from a New York City art patron in order to establish the prize. The Poetry Society continued to provide this support until 1922 when Columbia University as well as the Pulitzer Board, voted to regularize a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

Awards

In 1915 the Society began conferring awards honoring innovation and mastery of the form by emerging and established American poets. Robert_Frost_Medal

*Frost Medal — for distinguished lifetime achievement in American poetry. Inaugurated 1930; awarded annually since 1984. The medal was first presented in 1930 to Jessie Belle Rittenhouse, and to the memory of

Bliss Carman William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years. In Canada, Car ...

and

George Edward Woodberry George Edward Woodberry, Litt. D., LL. D. (May 12, 1855 – January 2, 1930) was an American literary critic and poet.''The Book Buyer'', Volume 8, p.7, (1892) Charles Scribner's Sons, New Yor/ref> Biography Education Woodberry was born in Bev ...

. Over the next 53 years, the Frost Medal was awarded eleven times, to poets at the end of their careers. In 1984, it became an annual award to a living poet. Since 1995, the recipient of the Frost Medal has delivered the Frost Medal Lecture. Medalists receive a prize purse of $5,000. Robert Frost was the fourth recipient of the Frost Medal, in 1941, after he retired from Amherst College. *

Shelley Memorial Award The Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need, and is ...

— offered by the society to a poet living in the United States who is chosen on the basis of "genius and need." Awarded annually since 1930, with the exception of 1933. * Four Quartets Prize – for a unified and complete sequence of poems published in America in a print or online journal, chapbook, or book; presented in partnership with the T.S. Eliot Foundation. Awarded annually since 2018.

Chapbook fellowships

Beginning in 2003, the Society began sponsoring an annual chapbook contest, awarding four fellowships to poets who have not yet published a full-length poetry collection. These fellowships include: *The National Chapbook Fellowship — given to two US poets who have yet to publish a first book of poems. *The New York Chapbook Fellowship — given to two New York poets under 30 years of age who have yet to publish a first book of poems

Annual awards

In addition to the Frost Medal, Shelley Award, and Four Quartets Prize, the Poetry Society confers other awards: *

Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award is given once a year to a member of the Poetry Society of America "to honor the memory and poetry of Emily Dickinson, for a poem inspired by Dickinson though not necessarily in her style.""PSA Annual Awa ...

— awarded for a poem inspired by Emily Dickinson. *

Cecil Hemley Memorial Award The Cecil Hemley Memorial Award is given once a year to a member of the Poetry Society of America "for a lyric poem that addresses a philosophical or epistemological concern.""PSA Annual Awards Guidelines" Web page at the Web site of the Poetry Soc ...

— awarded for a lyric poem that addresses a philosophical or epistemological concern. *

Lyric Poetry Award The Lyric Poetry Award is given once a year to a member of the Poetry Society of America and was "established under the will of PSA member Mrs. Consuelo Ford (Althea Urn), and also in memory of Mary Carolyn Davies, for a lyric poem on any subject. ...

— awarded for a lyric poem on any subject. *

Lucille Medwick Memorial Award The Lucille Medwick Memorial Award is given once a year to a member of the Poetry Society of America. It was "established by Maury Medwick in memory of his wife, the poet and editor, for an original poem in any form on a humanitarian theme."{{cite ...

— awarded for an original poem in any form on a humanitarian theme. * Louise Louis/Emily F. Bourne Student Poetry Award — awarded for the best unpublished poem by a student in grades 9 through 12 from the United States. *

George Bogin Memorial Award The Poetry Society of America's George Bogin Memorial Award is given "by the family and friends of George Bogin for a selection of four or five poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinar ...

— awarded for a selection of four or five poems that use language in an original way to reflect the encounter of the ordinary and the extraordinary and to take a stand against oppression in any of its forms. * Robert H. Winner Memorial Award — awarded to original work being done in mid-career by a poet who has not had substantial recognition. *Louis Hammer Memorial Award — awarded for a distinguished poem in the surrealist manner. *

Norma Farber First Book Award The Norma Farber First Book Award is given by the Poetry Society of America "for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition during the calendar year". Poetry Society of ...

— for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition. *

William Carlos Williams Award The William Carlos Williams Award is given out by the Poetry Society of America for a poetry book published by a small press, non-profit, or university press. The award is endowed by the family and friends of Geraldine Clinton Little, a poet an ...

— offered by the society for the best book of poetry published by a small, non-profit, or university press.

References

External links

* {{Authority control American poetry Poetry organizations American writers' organizations Culture of New York City Arts organizations based in New York City Organizations based in Manhattan Arts organizations established in 1910 1910 establishments in the United States