Yale Series of Younger Poets

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox book series

The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the United States.

Each year, the Younger Poets Competition accepts submissions from American poets who have not previously published a book of poetry. Once the judge has chosen a winner, the Press publishes a book-length manuscript of the winner's poetry as the next volume in the series. All poems must be original, and only one manuscript may be entered at a time.

Rules and eligibility

Contest requirements were first articulated in the summer of 1920. The series had already published four books, all written by Yale students, and the judges sought to attract a nationwide pool of applicants. A promotional statement gave the following, somewhat vague eligibility requirements: "Anyone is eligible provided he (or she) is young and comparatively unknown. The age limit is understood to be about thirty."Template:Sfn A formal set of rules was adopted in 1924.Template:Sfn In addition to specifying page limits and other manuscript requirements, these new rules limited the contest to American citizens younger than 30.Template:Sfn However, current rules allow poets of any age who have not published a book of poetry to be considered.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although the contest was briefly opened to any writer of English-language poetry under Auden's judgeship, it has remained limited to American citizens ever since.Template:Sfn

History

20th century

File:The Tempering - Howard Buck.jpg
The Tempering, published by Howard Buck in 1919, is the first volume in the series.

The Younger Poets Series was established in 1919 by Clarence Day, whose brother George Parmly Day founded Yale University Press with his wife Wilhelmine in 1908.Template:Sfn The competition's first judge, Charlton Miner Lewis, was a prominent professor in Yale's English department.Template:Sfn The inaugural competition took place after the end of World War I, just as an influx of young veterans returned from fighting in Europe and entered college.Template:Sfn Modernist poetry emerged in this period, but early entries in the series reflected the neoclassical tastes of the older generation adjudicating the competition, all men who had received degrees from Yale in the late-19th century.Template:Sfn The anglophilic publishers were heavily influenced by English poetry, especially the contemporary Georgian poetry, and the competition itself was directly influenced by the similar "Adventures All" poetry series of Oxford University Press.Template:Sfn

The contest solidified its importance in American literature under the judgeship of Stephen Vincent Benét.Template:Sfn Benet was judge from 1933 to 1942, followed by Archibald MacLeish from 1944 to 1946. Margaret Walker's For My People was the last volume selected by Benet. Auden assumed the judgeship after MacLeish.

The contest is regarded by someTemplate:Sfn to have been at its height from 1947 to 1959, when W. H. Auden was its judge. 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,Template:Sfn and Colossus, which was subsequently published in England.Template:Sfn

Between 1969 and 1977, overseen by Stanley Kunitz, included volumes by Carolyn Forché and Robert Hass; Hass later became the Poet Laureate of the United States.

21st century

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 consideredTemplate:Sfn to have revived the prize's stature, judged the award from 2003 to 2010. Rae Armantrout judged the prize from 2021 to 2025. Monica Youn is the current judge.

Judges

Past winners

The year column provides the date of the competition. The winning poetry collections are published the following year.

Year Template:Abbr Poet Title Judge Template:Abbr
1918 1 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
2 Template:Sortname Forgotten Shrines Template:Sfn
1919 3 Template:Sortname Four Gardens Template:Sfn
4 Template:Sortname Spires and Poplars Template:Sfn
5 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
6 Template:Sortname Where Lilith Dances Template:Sfn
1920 7 Template:Sortname Wild Geese Template:Sfn
8 Template:Sortname Horizons Template:Sfn
9 Template:Sortname Wampum and Old Gold Template:Sfn
10 Template:Sortname Golden Darkness Template:Sfn
1921 11 Template:Sortname White April Template:Sfn
12 Template:Sortname Dreams and a Sword Template:Sfn
13 Template:Sortname Hidden Waters Template:Sfn
14 Template:Sortname Attitudes Template:Sfn
1922 15 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
16 Template:Sortname Battle-Retrospect Template:Sfn
17 Template:Sortname Silver Wands Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
18 Template:Sortname Mosaics Template:Sfn
1923 19 Template:Sortname Up and Down Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1924 20 Template:Sortname Coach into Pumpkin Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1925 21 Template:Sortname Quest Template:Sfn
22 Template:Sortname High Passage Template:Sfn
1926 23 Template:Sortname Dark Pavilion Template:Sfn
1927 24 Template:Sortname Twist o' Smoke Template:Sfn
25 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
26 Template:Sortname This Unchanging Mask Template:Sfn
1928 27 Template:Sortname Hemlock Wall Template:Sfn
28 Template:Sortname Half-Light and Overture Template:Sfn
1929 29 Template:Sortname Virtuosa Template:Sfn
1930 30 Template:Sortname Dark Certainty Template:Sfn
1931 31 Template:Sortname Worn Earth Template:Sfn
1932 32 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1933 33 Template:Sortname Permit Me Voyage Template:Sfn
1934 34 Template:Sortname Theory of Flight Template:Sfn
1935 35 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1936 36 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1937 37 Template:Sortname Letter to a Comrade Template:Sfn
1938 38 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1939 39 Template:Sortname Return Again, Traveler Template:Sfn
1940 40 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1941 41 Template:Sortname For My People Template:Sfn
1942 colspan="3" Template:N/A Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1943 42 Template:Sortname Love Letters from an Impossible Land Template:Sfn
1944 43 Template:Sortname Cut Is the Branch Template:Sfn
1945 44 Template:Sortname Family Circle Template:Sfn
1946 45 Template:Sortname Poems Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1947 46 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1948 47 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1949 colspan="3" Template:N/A Template:Sfn
1950 48 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1951 49 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1952 50 Template:Sortname Various Jangling Keys Template:Sfn
1953 51 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1954 colspan="3" Template:N/A Template:Sfn
1955 52 Template:Sortname Some Trees Template:Sfn
1956 53 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1957 54 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1958 55 Template:Sortname Of the Festivity Template:Sfn
1959 56 Template:Sortname Bone Thoughts Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1960 57 Template:Sortname Poems Template:Sfn
1961 58 Template:Sortname Views of Jeopardy Template:Sfn
1962 59 Template:Sortname Manhattan Pastures Template:Sfn
1963 60 Template:Sortname The Breaking of the Day Template:Sfn
1964 61 Template:Sortname Dream Barker Template:Sfn
1965 colspan="3" Template:N/A Template:Sfn
1966 62 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
1967 63 Template:Sortname Coming Close and Other Poems Template:Sfn
1968 64 Template:Sortname Uranium Poems Template:Sfn
1969 65 Template:Sortname Collecting Evidence Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1970 66 Template:Sortname Lugging Vegetables to Nantucket Template:Sfn
1971 67 Template:Sortname Obscenities Template:Sfn
1972 68 Template:Sortname Field Guide Template:Sfn
1973 69 Template:Sortname Threats Instead of Trees Template:Sfn
1974 70 Template:Sortname Snow on Snow Template:Sfn
1975 71 Template:Sortname Gathering the Tribes Template:Sfn
1976 72 Template:Sortname Beginning with O Template:Sfn
1977 73 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1978 74 Template:Sortname Natural Histories Template:Sfn
1979 75 Template:Sortname One Way to Reconstruct the Scene Template:Sfn
1980 76 Template:Sortname Green Soldiers Template:Sfn
1981 77 Template:Sortname Icehouse Lights Template:Sfn
1982 78 Template:Sortname Picture Bride Template:Sfn
1983 79 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1984 80 Template:Sortname Navigable Waterways Template:Sfn
1985 81 Template:Sortname Terms to Be Met Template:Sfn
1986 82 Template:Sortname Above the Land Template:Sfn
1987 83 Template:Sortname To the Place of Trumpets Template:Sfn
1988 84 Template:Sortname Out of the Woods Template:Sfn
1989 85 Template:Sortname Hermit with Landscape Template:Sfn
1990 86 Template:Sortname Bears Dancing in the Northern Air Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1991 87 Template:Sortname Hands of the Saddlemaker Template:Sfn
1992 88 Template:Sortname Stone Crop Template:Sfn
1993 89 Template:Sortname Thinking the World Visible Template:Sfn
1994 90 Template:Sortname Living in the Resurrection Template:Sfn
1995 91 Template:Sortname Cities of Memory Template:Sfn
1996 92 Template:Sortname My Shining Archipelago Template:Sfn
1997 colspan="3" Template:N/A Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
1998 93 Template:Sortname Shells Template:Sfn
1999 94 Template:Sortname Ultima Thule Template:Sfn
2000 95 Template:Sortname Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions Template:Sfn
2001 96 Template:Sortname Discography Template:Sfn
2002 97 Template:Sortname Famous Americans Template:Sfn
2003 98 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
2004 99 Template:Sortname Crush Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
2005 100 Template:Sortname Green Squall Template:Sfn
2006 101 Template:Sortname Frail-Craft Template:Sfn
2007 102 Template:Sortname The Earth in the Attic Template:Sfn
2008 103 Template:Sortname It Is Daylight Template:Sfn
2009 104 Template:Sortname Juvenilia Template:Sfn
2010 105 Template:Sortname Radial Symmetry Template:Sfn
2011 106 Template:Sortname Slow Lightning Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
2012 107 Template:Sortname Westerly Template:Sfn
2013 108 Template:Sortname Eruv Template:Sfn
2014 109 Template:Sortname Blue Yodel Template:Sfn
2015 110 Template:Sortname Template:Sort Template:Sfn
2016 111 Template:Sortname simulacra Template:Sfn
2017 112 Duy Doan We Play a Game Template:Sfn
2018 113 Yanyi Template:Sort Template:Sfn
2019 114 Jill Osier Template:Sort Template:Sfn
2020 115 Desiree C. Bailey What Noise Against The Cane citation CitationClass=web

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2021 116 Robert Wood Lynn Mothman Apologia Template:Sortname Template:Sfn
2022 117 Mary-Alice Daniel Mass for Shut-Ins Template:Sfn
2023 118 Cindy Juyoung Ok Ward Toward Template:Sfn
2024 119 John Liles Bees, and After Template:Sfn
2025 120 Isabel Neal Thrown Voice Template:Sfn

See also

References

Citations

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Sources

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