The Alice James Award, formerly the Beatrice Hawley Award, is given annually by

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, MA in 197 ...

. The award includes publication of a book-length poetry manuscript and a cash prize (currently $2,000). The award was established by the press in 1986 to honor cooperative member author Beatrice Hawley (''Making the House Fall Down,'' 1977) who died in 1985 at forty-one years of age from lung cancer. The Award was renamed, like its sponsoring publisher, after

Alice James Alice James (August 7, 1848 – March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher and psychologist William James. Her relationship with William was unusually close, and she seems to have been badly affect ...

"whose extraordinary gift for writing went unrecognized in her lifetime." The Award is a nationally-offered publication prize open to poets at any stage of their careers. The first award recipient was

Linnea Johnson Linnea Johnson (born 1946 in Chicago) is an American poet, and feminist writer, winner of the inaugural Beatrice Hawley Award for ''The Chicago Home'' (Alice James Books, 1986). Johnson was raised in Chicago, and lives and writes in Topeka, Kansa ...

, for ''The Chicago Home.'' Winners of the award have often gone on to receive national attention and further honors for their winning works, most notably, Brian Turner for ''Here, Bullet,'' which received national and international media attention. Turner also received numerous further awards and honors for his work, including a 2006

Lannan Literary Fellowship The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

, the 2006 Northern California Book Award in Poetry, the 2006 PEN Center USA "Best in the West" Literary Award in Poetry, a 2007 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, the 2007 Poets' Prize, and the 2009 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship.

Catherine Barnett Catherine Barnett (born 1960 in San Francisco) is an American poet and educator. She is the author of ''Human Hours'' (Graywolf Press, 2018); ''The Game of Boxes'' (Graywolf Press, 2012), winner of the James Laughlin Award; and ''Into Perfect Sphe ...

(''Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced,'' 2003) was further recognized with the 2004 Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, a Whiting Award, and a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

Mary Szybist Mary Szybist (born 20 September 1970) is an American poet. She won the National Book Award for Poetry for her collection ''Incarnadine''. Life She grew up in Pennsylvania, earned her B.A. and M.T. (Master of Teaching) from the University of Virg ...

(''Granted,'' 2003) was further recognized with the 2004 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and was a 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.

B.H. Fairchild B.H. Fairchild (born 1942) is an American poet and former college professor. His most recent book is ''An Ordinary Life'' (W.W. Norton, 2023), and his poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including ''The New Yorker'', ''The Pari ...

(''The Art of the Lathe,'' 1997) was 1998

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

Finalist, and won the 1999 William Carlos Williams Award, the 1999 PEN Center West Poetry Award, the 1999

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards are a pair of American prizes based at Claremont Graduate University. They are given to poets for their collections of poetry written in the English language, by a citizen or legal resident alien of the ...

, and the 1999

California Book Award The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone. Ac ...

. The 2008 winner, ''Slamming Open the Door,'' by Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno, was reviewed by ''The New York Times Sunday Book Review,'' and Bonanno was interviewed on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' by Terri Gross.

Beatrice Hawley / Alice James Award Winners

* 1986:

, for ''The Chicago Home'' * 1987: Laurel Trivelpiece, for ''Blue Holes'' * 1988: Jean Valentine, for ''Home Deep Blue'' * 1992: Alice Jones, for ''The Knot'' * 1994: Richard McCann, for ''Ghost Letters'' * 1995:

Forrest Hamer Forrest Hamer (born 1956) is an American poet, psychologist, and psychoanalyst. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently ''Rift'' (Four Way Books, 2007). His first collection, ''Call & Response,'' (Alice James Books) won the Bea ...

, for ''Call & Response'' * 1996: Cynthia Huntington, for ''We Have Gone to the Beach'' * 1997:

, for ''The Art of the Lathe'' * 1998:

Laura Kasischke Laura Kasischke is an American fiction writer and poet. She is best known for writing the novels ''Suspicious River'', ''The Life Before Her Eyes'' and ''White Bird in a Blizzard'', all of which have been adapted to film. Life and work She was b ...

, for ''Fire and Flower'' * 1999:

Amy Newman Amy Newman is translator, American poet, and professor. She is a Presidential Research Professor at Northern Illinois University. Life She graduated with a Ph.D. in English Literature and Language from Ohio University. She is the author of five ...

, for ''Camera Lyrica'' * 2000:

Claudia Keelan Claudia Keelan (b. 1959) is an American poet, writer, and professor. She received the Regents’ Creative Activities Award, at the University of Nevada, Los Vegas. Life Claudia Keelan is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently ' ...

, for ''Utopic'' * 2001: Liz Waldner, for ''Self and Simulacra'' * 2002:

, for ''Granted'' * 2003:

, for ''Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced'' * 2004:

Dobby Gibson Dobby Gibson (born 1970) is an American poet. His first book of poetry, ''Polar,'' (Alice James Books, 2004) won the 2004 Beatrice Hawley Award and was a finalist for the 2006 Minnesota Book Award. He is also author of ''Skirmish'' (2009) ''It Beco ...

, for ''Polar'' * 2005: Brian Turner, for ''Here, Bullet'' * 2006: Henrietta Goodman, for ''Take What You Want'' * 2007:

Lia Purpura Lia Purpura (born February 22, 1964, Mineola, New York) is an American poet, writer and educator. She is the author of four collections of poems (''King Baby'', ''Stone Sky Lifting'', ''The Brighter the Veil'', ''It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful' ...

, for ''King Baby'' * 2008: Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno for ''Slamming Open the Door'' * 2009:

Reginald Dwayne Betts Reginald Dwayne Betts is an American poet, legal scholar, educator and prison reform advocate. At age 16 he committed an armed carjacking, was prosecuted as an adult, and sentenced to nine years in prison. He started reading and writing poetry dur ...

, for ''Shahid Reads His Own Palm'' * 2010: Lesle Lewis, for ''lie down too'' * 2011:

Jane Springer Jane Springer (born Lawrenceburg, Tennessee) is an American poet. Her honors include a 2010 Whiting Awards, Whiting Award, the Robert Penn Warren Prize for Poetry, and the Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books. Life She graduated from Flori ...

, for ''Murder Ballad'' * 2012:

Jamaal May Jamaal May is an American poet from Detroit. Life and career May lived in Detroit, where he taught poetry in public schools as a Writer-in-Residence with InsideOut Literary Arts. He received an MFA from Warren Wilson College. May has taught at t ...

for ''Hum'' * 2013:

Philip Metres Philip Metres is an American writer (poet, translator, scholar, and essayist). His poetry books include ''Shrapnel Maps'', ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', and ''Sand Opera''. He has published poems, essays, and reviews in literary journals and mag ...

for ''Sand Opera'' * 2014: Richie Hofmann for ''Second Empire'' * 2015:

Elizabeth Lyons Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

for ''The Blessing of Dark Water'' * 2016: Anna Rose Welch for ''Noah's Woods'' * 2017: Mia Malhotra for ''When I See You Again It Will Be With a Different Face'' * 2018: Amy Woolard for ''Neck of the Woods'' * 2019:

Rosebud Ben-Oni Rosebud Ben-oni is a Latina-Jewish American poet and writer known for her "Poet Wrestling with" series and other creative work that mixes lyricism, humor and sometimes pop cultures with high-concept scientific theories. She is the author of sev ...

for ''If This is the Age We End Discovery'' * 2020: Aldo Amparán for ''Brother Sleep'' * 2021: Ina Cariño for ''Feast''

References

{{Reflist

Sources

Alice James Books Website > Various Pages
Awards established in 1986 American poetry awards 1986 establishments in Maine