ShelfEvidentNational Book Award for Poetry
2025 Winner
2025 Shortlist & Longlist
Shortlist
Shortlist
Shortlist
Shortlist
Shortlist
Complete History
2020s
2010s
- 2019Sight Lines — Arthur Sze
- 2018Indecency — Justin Phillip Reed
- 2017Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 — Frank Bidart
- 2016The Performance of Becoming Human — Daniel Borzutzky
- 2015Voyage of the Sable Venus — Robin Coste Lewis
- 2014Faithful and Virtuous Night — Louise Glück
- 2013Incarnadine — Mary Szybist
- 2012Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations — David Ferry
- 2011Head Off & Split: Poems — Nikky Finney
- 2010Lighthead — Terrance Hayes
2000s
- 2009Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy — Keith Waldrop
- 2008Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems — Mark Doty
- 2007Time and Materials: Poems, 1997-2005 — Robert Hass
- 2006Splay Anthem — Nathaniel Mackey
- 2005Migration: New and Selected Poems — W. S. Merwin
- 2004Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 — Jean Valentine
- 2003The Singing — C. K. Williams
- 2002In the Next Galaxy — Ruth Stone
- 2001Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry — Alan Dugan
- 2000Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 — Lucille Clifton
1990s
- 1999Vice: New and Selected Poems — Ai
- 1998This Time: New and Selected Poems — Gerald Stern
- 1997Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems — William Meredith
- 1996Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 — Hayden Carruth
- 1995Passing Through: The Later Poems — Stanley Kunitz
- 1994Worshipful Company of Fletchers — James Tate
- 1993Garbage — A. R. Ammons
- 1992New and Selected Poems — Mary Oliver
- 1991What Work Is — Philip Levine
1980s
1970s
- 1979Mirabell: Books of Number — James Merrill
- 1978The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov — Howard Nemerov
- 1977Collected Poems, 1930-1976 — Richard Eberhart
- 1976Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror — John Ashbery
- 1975Presentation Piece — Marilyn Hacker
- 1974Diving into the Wreck — Adrienne Rich
- 1973Collected Poems, 1951-1971 — A. R. Ammons
- 1972The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara — Frank O'Hara
- 1971To See, to Take: Poems — Mona Van Duyn
- 1970The Complete Poems — Elizabeth Bishop
1960s
- 1969His Toy, His Dream, His Rest — John Berryman
- 1968The Light Around the Body — Robert Bly
- 1967Nights and Days — James Merrill
- 1966Buckdancer's Choice: Poems — James Dickey
- 1965The Far Field — Theodore Roethke
- 1964Selected Poems — John Crowe Ransom
- 1963Traveling Through the Dark — William Stafford
- 1962Poems — Alan Dugan
- 1961The Woman at the Washington Zoo — Randall Jarrell
- 1960Life Studies — Robert Lowell
1950s
- 1959Words for the Wind — Theodore Roethke
- 1958Promises: Poems, 1954-1956 — Robert Penn Warren
- 1957Things of This World — Richard Wilbur
- 1956The Shield of Achilles — W. H. Auden
- 1955The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens — Wallace Stevens
- 1954Collected Poems — Conrad Aiken
- 1953Collected Poems, 1917-1952 — Archibald MacLeish
- 1952Collected Poems — Marianne Moore
- 1951The Auroras of Autumn — Wallace Stevens
- 1950Paterson: Book Three and Selected Poems — William Carlos Williams
About the National Book Award for Poetry
The National Book Award for Poetry is one of America's premier poetry prizes, awarded annually by the National Book Foundation to a US citizen for a distinguished collection of poetry published in the US. The award has been given since 1950, with a hiatus from 1983 to 1990 when it was subsumed into other award structures. In its current form it recognizes both established and emerging voices in American poetry. Prize money of $10,000 goes to the winner, with $1,000 to each finalist. Past winners represent the full range of American poetic tradition, from W.H. Auden and Robert Lowell to Jesmyn Ward, Frank Bidart, and Patricia Smith. The award process begins with a longlist announced in September, followed by five finalists in October and the winner in November at the National Book Awards ceremony in New York City. Judges are drawn from the pool of distinguished American poets, critics, and educators. The award does not restrict itself to any particular style or school of poetry, recognizing formal verse, free verse, hybrid forms, and innovative approaches alike. A. R. Ammons, Philip Levine, and Alan Dugan are among the poets to have won this award twice.
Frequently Asked Questions
- US citizens who publish a poetry collection in the US between December 1 of the previous year and November 30 of the award year are eligible.
- The winner receives $10,000 and a bronze medal. Each of the five finalists receives $1,000 and a bronze medal.
- Winners are announced in November at the National Book Awards ceremony. Longlists are announced in September and finalists in October.
- Yes. The award was not given from 1984 to 1990 while the National Book Awards were restructured. It was reinstated in 1991.
- Yes. A. R. Ammons won in 1973 and 1993, Philip Levine in 1980 and 1991, and Alan Dugan in 1962 and 2001, among others.
- Yes. Both new collections and new and selected poems volumes are eligible, as long as the volume contains a substantial amount of previously uncollected work.
- No. Poetry originally written in English by a US citizen is required. Translations are eligible for the separate Translated Literature category.