The Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize, in honor of

Samuel French Morse Samuel French Morse (1916–1985) was an American poet and teacher. He had the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize named in his honor, which lasted from 1983–2009. The prize was for a first or second book of poems by a U.S. poet, with a $1000 cash ...

, is a

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...

given to an American author's first or second 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 ...

. The annual prize was established in 1983 and sponsored by

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

. Once selected by a recognized poet, the awarded poet received $1000, and the work received publication by Northeastern University Press, and distribution through the

University Press of New England The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New Hampsh ...

. Prize-winning books were published with a striped cover design, characteristic of the Morse Poetry Prize. The award was suspended in 2009, due to difficulties with financial sustainability.

Winners

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet (born January 31, 1968) is an American poet. Stonestreet's second book, ''The Greenhouse,'' was awarded the 2014 Frost Place Chapbook Prize and published by Bull City Press in August 2014. Her first book, ''Tulips, Water, ...

, ''Tulips, Water, Ash'', Judge: Jean Valentine *

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

: Dana Roeser, ''In the Truth Room'' *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

: Virginia Chase Sutton, ''What Brings You to Del Amo'' *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

: Roy Jacobstein, ''A Form of Optimism'' *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Annie Boutelle Annie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress * Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer The ...

, ''Nest of Thistles'' *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

: Dana Roeser, ''Beautiful Motion: Poems'' *

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Chris Forhan Chris Forhan is a poet, memoirist, and professor at Butler University, author most recently, of ''My Father Before Me'', published by Simon and Schuster. Each of his full-length poetry collections has won an award: ''Black Leapt In,'' ''The Actua ...

, ''The Actual Moon, the Actual Stars'' *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

: Catherine Sasanov, ''All the Blood Tethers'' *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

: Ted Genoways, ''Bullroarer: A Sequence'' *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Jennifer Atkinson ''Home and Away'' is an Australian soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. The 3rd season of ''Home and Away'' began airing from 8 January 1990. The following is a list of characters that first appeared in 1990, by or ...

, ''The Drowned City'' *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

: James Haug, ''Walking Liberty'' *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

: Jeffrey Greene, ''American Spirituals'' *

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Charles Harper Webb Charles Harper Webb is an American poet, professor, psychotherapist and former singer and guitarist. His most recent poetry collection is ''Shadow Ball'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009). His honors include a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim ...

, ''Reading the Water'' *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Michelle Boisseau Michelle Boisseau (October 26, 1955 – November 15, 2017) was an American poet. Life and career Boisseau was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 26, 1955. She attended Ohio University, where she receiver a BA in 1977 and an MA in 1980, and th ...

, ''Understory'' *

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

: Allison Funk, ''Living at the Epicenter'' *

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

: David Moolten, ''Plums and Ashes'' *

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

: Don Boes, ''The Eighth Continent'' *

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

: Carl Phillips, ''In the Blood'' *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

: George Mills, ''The House Sails Out of Sight of Home'' *

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

J. Allyn Rosser Jill Allyn Rosser (born 1957 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), who published under J. Allyn Rosser, is a contemporary American poet. Life She grew up in Sparta Township, New Jersey. She graduated from Middlebury College with a B.A. in French and Eng ...

, ''Bright Moves'' *

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

: Lucia Perillo, ''Dangerous Life'' *

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Frank Gaspar Frank Xavier Gaspar is an American poet, novelist and professor of Portuguese descent. A number of his books treat Portuguese-American themes or settings, particularly the Portuguese community in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His most recent novel ...

, ''The Holyoke'' *

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

: Sue Ellen Thompson, ''This Body of Silk'' *

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

: William Carpenter, ''Rain'' *

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

: Susan Donnelly, ''Eve Names the Animals'', Judge: Anthony Hecht

References

{{Reflist American poetry awards Awards established in 1983

Winners

See also

References