The Four Quartets Prize is an award of the Poetry Society of America, presented annually since 2018 in partnership with the

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

Foundation. It is "first and foremost a celebration of the multi-part poem, which includes entire volumes composed of a unified sequence as well as novels in verse and book-length verse narratives."

Background

The awards are named for T.S. Eliot's '' Four Quartets,'' written over a four-year period. The award recognizes the 75th anniversary of Eliot's New York publisher first collecting them in a single volume in 1943.

Eligibility

The prize is awarded for a unified and complete sequence of poems. Examples of existing sequences that would fit the category: *

Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetr ...

, ''A Street in Bronzeville'' (1945) or ''The Anniad'' (1950) *

John Berryman John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...

, 77 ''Dream Poems'' (1964) or ''His Toy, His Dream, His Rest'' (1968) Winners receive a prize of $20,000; three finalists (including the eventual winner) receive $1,000 apiece. The prize does not require that nominees have an existing body of work or reach a certain age. The Four Quartets Prize was first presented in 2018 to

Danez Smith Danez Smith is an African-American, poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections '' nsertBoy'' and ''Don't Call Us Dead: Poems'', both of which have ...

for their sonnet "summer, somewhere."

Four Quartets winners and finalists

Winners are listed first, highlighted and with a double dagger.

References

{{Reflist *

External links

The Four Quartets Prize
at the Poetry Society of America official website American poetry awards Awards established in 2018 2018 establishments in the United States