The Barnard Women Poets Prize is a literary award in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

for an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

book of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. From 1986 to 2001, the prize was a first-book award called the Barnard New Women Poets Prize. Winners had their poetry book published under the auspices of the award, and 16 were published from 1986 to 2001 with support from the Axe-Houghton Foundation and alumnae of

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

. Beacon Press was the publisher. A 2000 essay in the ''

Chicago Review ''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...

'' named this prize as one of two examples (along with the Yale Series of Younger Poets) of "first-book awards of notable integrity".Geoffrey Treacle
"Cultural Capital"
''

'', March 22, 2000. In 2003, Women Poets at Barnard, in collaboration with

W.W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton An ...

, inaugurated a new biennial book prize for the best second book by an American woman poet, expressing the view that "a second book more firmly establishes a poet". Karen W. Arenson
"Bulletin Board; The Second Book of Poetry"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', June 11, 2003. It is awarded by Women Poets at Barnard and the publisher W.W. Norton & Company and includes publication of the poetry book and a free public poetry reading by the author at Barnard.

Winners and judges

References

{{reflist

External links

Barnard Women Poets Prize Homepage

1986-1992 List
American poetry awards Awards established in 1986 1986 establishments in the United States Literary awards honoring women