Pulitzer Prize: Poetry

Christchurch City Libraries lists literary prize winners and links to catalogue searches, but we may not hold copies of all titles mentioned.

The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, drama and music. The prizes have been awarded by the Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University since 1917. The Prize for Poetry has been awarded since 1918.

See the other Pulitzer Prize categories winners and all the other literary prize winners we list.

2024

• Tripas: Poems Brandon Som Winner
• Information Desk: An Epic Robyn Schiff 
• To 2040 Jorie Graham

2023

• Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 by Carl Phillips Winner
• Blood Snow by dg nanouk okpik  
• Still Life by the late Jay Hopler

2022

• frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss Winner
• Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten by Will Alexander
• Yellow Rain by Mai Der Vang

2021

• Postcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie Diaz Winner
• A Treatise on Stars, by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
• In the Lateness of the World, by Carolyn Forché

2020

• The Tradition, by Jericho Brown Winner
• Dunce, by Mary Ruefle
• Only as the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems, by Dorianne Laux

2019

• Be With Forrest Gander Winner
• feeld Jos Charles 
• Like A. E. Stallings

2018

• Half-light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 Frank Bidart Winner
• Incendiary Art Patricia Smith 
• semiautomatic Evie Shockley 

2017

• Olio Tyehimba Jess Winner
• Collected Poems: 1950-2012 Adrienne Rich
• XX Campbell McGrath

2016

• Ozone Journal Peter Balakian Winner
• Four-Legged Girl Diane Seuss
• Alive: New and Selected Poems Elizabeth Willis

2015

• Digest Gregory Pardlo Winner
• Reel to reel Alan Shapiro
• Compass rose Arthur Sze

2014

• 3 sections Vijay Seshadri Winner
• The sleep of reason Morri Creech
• The big smoke Adrian Matejka

2013

• Stag's leap Sharon Olds Winner
• Collected poems Jack Gilbert
• The abundance of nothing Bruce Weigl

2012

• Life on Mars Tracy K. Smith

2011

• The best of it: new and selected Poems Kay Ryan

2010

• Versed Rae Armantrout

2009

• The shadow of Sirius W.S. Merwin

2008

• Time and materials Robert Hass
• Failure Philip Schultz

2007

• Native guard Natasha Trethewey

2006

• Late wife Claudia Emerson

2005

• Delights and shadows Ted Kooser

2004

• Walking to Martha's Vineyard Franz Wright

2003

• Moy sand and gravel Paul Muldoon

2002

• Practical gods Carl Dennis

2001

• Different hours Stephen Dunn

2000

• Repair: poems C. K. Williams

1999

• Blizzard of one Mark Strand

1998

• Black zodiac Charles Wright

1997

• Alive together: new and selected poems Lisel Mueller

1996

• The dream of the unified field Jorie Graham

1995

• The simple truth Philip Levine

1994

• Neon vernacular: new & selected poems Yusef Komunyakaa

1993

• The wild iris Louise Gluck

1992

• Selected poems James Tate

1991

• Near changes Mona Van Duyn

1990

• The world doesn’t end Charles Simic

1989

• New and collected poems Richard Wilbur

1988

• Partial accounts: new and selected poems William Meredith

1987

• Thomas and Beulah Rita Dove

1986

• The flying change Henry Taylor

1985

• Yin Carolyn Kizer

1984

• American primitive Mary Oliver

1983

• Selected poems Galway Kinnell

1982

• The collected poems Sylvia Plath

1981

• The morning of the poem James Schuyler

1980

• Selected poems Donald Justice

1979

• Now and then Robert Penn Warren

1978

• Collected poems Howard Nemerov

1977

• Divine comedies James Merrill

1976

• Self-portrait in a convex mirror John Ashbery

1975

• Turtle Island Gary Snyder

1974

• The dolphin Robert Lowell

1973

• Up country Maxine Kumin

1972

• Collected poems James Wright

1971

• The carrier of ladders W.S. Merwin

1970

• Untitled subjects Richard Howard

1969

• Of being numerous George Oppen

1968

• The hard hours Anthony Hecht

1967

• Live or die Anne Sexton

1966

• Selected poems Richard Eberhart

1965

• 77 dream songs John Berryman

1964

• At the end of the open road Louis Simpson

1963

• Pictures from Breughel William Carlos Williams

1962

• Poems Alan Dugan

1961

• Times three: selected verse from three decades Phyllis McGinley

1960

• Heart’s needle W.D. Snodgrass

1959

• Selected poems 1928-1958 Stanley Kunitz

1958

• Promises: poems 1954-1956 Robert Penn Warren

1957

• Things of this world Richard Wilbur

1956

• Poems - North & South Elizabeth Bishop

1955

• Collected poems Wallace Stevens

1954

• The waking Theodore Roethke

1953

• Collected poems 1917-1952 Archibald MacLeish

1952

• Collected poems Marianne Moore

1951

• Complete poems Carl Sandburg

1950

• Annie Allen Gwendolyn Brooks

1949

• Terror and decorum Peter Viereck

1948

• The age of anxiety W. H. Auden

1947

• Lord Weary’s castle Robert Lowell

1946

• No award

1945

• V-Letter and other poems Karl Shapiro

1944

• Western star Stephen Vincent Benet

1943

• A witness tree Robert Frost

1942

• The dust which is God William Rose Benet

1941

• Sunderland capture Leornard Bacon

1940

• Collected poems Mark Van Doren

1939

• Selected poems John Gould Fletcher

1938

• Cold morning sky Marya Zaturenska

1937

• A further range Robert Frost

1936

• Strange holiness Robert P. Tristram Coffin

1935

• Bright ambush Audrey Wurdemann

1934

• Collected verse Robert Hillyer

1933

• Conquistador Archibald MacLeish

1932

• The flowering stone George Dillon

1931

• Collected poems Robert Frost

1930

• Selected poems Conrad Aiken

1929

• John Brown’s body Stephen Vincent Benet

1928

• Tristram Edwin Arlington Robinson

1927

• Fiddler’s farewell Leonora Speyer

1926

• What’s o’clock Amy Lowell

1925

• The man who died twice Edwin Arlington Robinson

1924

• New Hampshire: a poem with notes and grace notes Robert Frost

1923

• The ballad of the harp-weaver, A few figs from thistles, Eight sonnets Edna St. Vincent Millay in "American Poetry 1922 A Miscellany"

1922

• Collected poems Edwin Arlington Robinson

1921

• No award

1920

• No award

1919

• Corn huskers Carl Sandburg
• Old road to Paradise Margaret Widdemer

1918

• Love songs Sara Teasdale