After compiling a partial list of award-winning black women poets, I decided to take a look at black men recipients of awards, prizes, and fellowships. Like the list of black women poets, this list contains 125 entries. Also, like that and all of my compilations, this list is not exhaustive.
The top 12 award-winning poets account for 40% of the recipients on this list of 125: Reginald Dwayne Betts (3), Jericho Brown (3), Thomas Sayers Ellis (3), Terrance Hayes (6), Major Jackson (4), A. Van Jordan (4), Yusef Komunyakaa (5), Nathaniel Mackey (5), Adrian Matejka (4), Carl Phillips (4), Jay Wright (5), and Kevin Young (5).
As one point of comparison, the top 11 recipients on my list of black women poets comprise 57% of the total compared to 40% with the men. At the same time, there are 71 men on the list below and 52 women on this list.
Black men poets as recipients
1976: Michael S. Harper (Guggenheim Fellowship)
1976-1978: Robert Hayden (Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress)
1985: Etheridge Knight (Shelley Memorial Award)
1987: Etheridge Knight (American Book Award)
1989: Askia M. Touré (American Book Award)
1992: Kevin Young (Stegner Fellowship)
1992: Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize for Literature)
1993: Cyrus Cassells (Lannan Literary Award for Poetry)
1993: Cornelius Eady (Guggenheim Fellowship)
1993: Kevin Young (National Poetry Series Winner)
1993: Nathaniel Mackey (Whiting Writers' Award)
1993: Eugene B. Redmond (American Book Award)
1993: Essex Hemphill (Pew Fellowship in the Arts)
1994: Yusef Komunyakaa (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
1994: Yusef Komunyakaa (Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award)
1994: Adam David Miller (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
1995: Cyrus Cassells (William Carlos Williams Award)
1995: Major Jackson (Pew Fellowship in the Arts)
1995: Forrest Hamer (Alice James Award)
1996: Kevin Young (John C. Zacharis First Book Award)
1996: Jay Wright (Academy of American Poets' Fellowship)
1996: Bruce A. Jacobs (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
1997: Carl Phillips (Guggenheim Fellowship)
1997: Bill Harris (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
1998: Ishmael Reed (MacArthur Fellowship)
1998: Ed Roberson (National Poetry Series Winner)
1998: Afaa Michael Weaver (Pew Fellowship in the Arts)
1998: Claude Wilkinson (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
1999: Terrance Hayes (Whiting Writers' Award)
2000: Jay Wright (Lannan Literary Award for Poetry)
2000: Terrance Hayes (Kate Tufts Discovery Award)
2000: Major Jackson (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2000: Claude Wilkinson (Whiting Writers' Award)
2000: Jerry Wemple (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
2001: Terrance Hayes (National Poetry Series Winner)
2001: Yusef Komunyakaa (Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize)
2001: James R. Whitley (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
2002: Jay Wright (Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award)
2002: Carl Phillips (Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award)
2002: Al Young (American Book Award)
2003: Kyle G. Dargan (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2003: Amaud Jamual Johnson (Stegner Fellowship)
2003: Kevin Young (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2004: Tyehimba Jess (National Poetry Series Winner)
2004: A. Van Jordan (Whiting Writers' Award)
2004: Frank X. Walker (Lillian Smith Book Award)
2004: Yusef Komunyakaa (Shelley Memorial Award)
2005: Frank X. Walker (Lannan Literary Award for Poetry)
2005: Thomas Sayers Ellis (Whiting Writers' Award)
2005: Anthony A. Lee (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
2005: John Keene (Whiting Writers' Award)
2005: A. Van Jordan (Anisfield-Wolf Award)
2005: Lamont B. Steptoe (American Book Award)
2005: Jay Wright (Bollingen Prize for American Poetry)
2006: Tyehimba Jess (Whiting Writers' Award)
2006: Jay Wright (American Book Award Lifetime Achievement)
2006: Nathaniel Mackey (National Book Award for Poetry)
2006: Carl Phillips (Academy of American Poets' Fellowship)
2006: Thomas Sayers Ellis (John C. Zacharis First Book Award)
2006: Major Jackson (The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship)
2007: Ronaldo V. Wilson (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2007: A. Van Jordan (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2008: Douglas Kearney (National Poetry Series Winner)
2008: Reginald Shepherd (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2008: Kyle G. Dargan (Hurston-Wright Legacy Award)
2008: C. S. Giscombe (American Book Award)
2008: Adrian Matejka (National Poetry Series Winner)
2008: Michael S. Harper (Robert Frost Medal)
2008: Roger Reeves (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2009: Indigo Moor (Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize)
2009: Ed Roberson (Shelley Memorial Award)
2009: Jericho Brown (American Book Award)
2009: Terrance Hayes (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2009: Jericho Brown (Whiting Writers' Award)
2009: Gary Jackson (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2009: Jericho Brown (The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship)
2009: Myronn Hardy (Hurston-Wright Legacy Award)
2009: Reginald Dwayne Betts (Alice James Award)
2010: Terrance Hayes (National Book Award for Poetry)
2010: Quincy Troupe (American Book Award Lifetime Achievement)
2010: Haki R. Madhubuti (Hurston-Wright Legacy Award)
2010: Iain Haley Pollock (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2010: Nathaniel Mackey (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2010: Edward Bruce Bynum (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
2011: Marcus Wicker (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2011: Yusef Komunyakaa (Wallace Stevens Award)
2011: Shane McCrae (Whiting Writers' Award)
2011: Carl Phillips (Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry)
2011: Reginald Dwayne Betts (The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship)
2011: Marcus Wicker (National Poetry Series Winner)
2012: Reginald Dwayne Betts (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2012: Reginald Harris (Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize)
2012: Rickey Laurentiis (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2012: Jamaal May (Alice James Award)
2012: Kevin Young (American Book Award)
2012: Kwame Dawes (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2012: Eugene B. Redmond (American Book Award Lifetime Achievement)
2012: Dexter Booth (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2013: Phillip B. Williams (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2013: Ishion Hutchinson (Whiting Writers' Award)
2013: Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Whiting Writers' Award)
2013: Ross Gay (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2013: Major Jackson (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2013: F. Douglas Brown (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2014: Rickey Laurentiis (Cave Canem poetry prize)
2014: Afaa Michael Weaver (Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award)
2014: Adrian Matejka (Lannan Literary Award for Poetry)
2014: Jamaal May (Lannan Literary Award for Poetry)
2014 Danez Smith (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2014: Derrick Harriell (Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award)
2014: Adrian Matejka (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2014: Terrance Hayes (MacArthur Fellowship)
2014: Austin Alexis (Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award)
2014: Adrian Matejka (Anisfield-Wolf Award)
2014: Nathaniel Mackey (Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize)
2014: Amaud Jamual Johnson (Hurston-Wright Legacy Award)
2015: Nathaniel Mackey (Bollingen Prize for American Poetry)
2015: Kamau Brathwaite (Robert Frost Medal)
2015: Roger Reeves (Whiting Writers' Award)
2015: Gregory Pardlo (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
2015: Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2015: Thomas Sayers Ellis (Guggenheim Fellowship)
2015: A. Van Jordan (Lannan Literary Award for Poetry)
2015: Nate Marshall (Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships)
2015: Ross Gay (The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship)
Related:
• A Notebook on prizes, awards & fellowships
2 comments:
Did you include the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards? I know Jericho Brown and Adrian Matejka received those.
Thank you for this work of compiling and counting! Documentation is important.
Thanks. I have Matejka's on there, and not sure how I didn't add Brown's since I have his other ones and that specific award for him in my notes. No worries though, I'll include it in the updated list. Thanks for reading.
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