The Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award was established in 1994 by '' The Formalist.'' The award, honoring the poet

Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov (March 1, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. He was twice Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. For ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977 ...

(1920–1991), was an open competition for

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

s in English that drew about 3000 entries annually. Essay by three-time Nemerov Award winner Mike Juster. The award was $1000, and from 1995–2004, the winning sonnet and the eleven finalists were published inFollowing the discontinuation of ''The Formalist'' in 2004, the winning sonnet and eleven finalist poems were published in the literary magazine '' Measure''. The creation of this award is associated with the "

New Formalism New Formalism is a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels ...

" movement. In the announcement of the 2017 winner and finalists, the 2017 competition was described as the "24th & final" contest.

List of winners

The winners, judges, and winning sonnets from 1994–2011 are posted on a webpage of ''The Formalist''; the subsequent winners are also listed in the table below:

References

American poetry awards {{US-lit-stub

List of winners

See also

References