Four Quartets Prize

The Four Quartets Prize is an award of the Poetry Society of America, presented annually since 2018 in partnership with the T.S. Eliot 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."[1]

Background

The awards are named for T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, originally 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.[2][3]

Eligibility

The prize is awarded for a unified and complete sequence of poems.[4] Examples of existing sequences that would fit the category:[1]

  • John Berryman, 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.[5] The prize does not require that nominees have an existing body of work or reach a certain age.[2]

The Four Quartets Prize was first presented in 2018 to Danez Smith for their sonnet "summer, somewhere."

Four Quartets winners and finalists

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

Year Poet Work
2019 Dante Micheaux The Circus
Catherine Barnett "Accursed Questions" from Human Hours
Meredith Stricker anemochore
2018[2] Danez Smith "summer, somewhere" from Don't Call Us Dead
Geoffrey G. O'Brien "Experience in Groups" from Experience in Groups
Kathleen Peirce Vault: a poem

References
  1. "Four Quartets Prize - Poetry Society of America". www.poetrysociety.org. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  2. "Danez Smith Wins Inaugural Four Quartets Prize by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2018-09-20.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. Kirk, Russell (2008). Eliot and His Age: T.S. Eliot's Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century. ISI Books. p. 239. OCLC 80106144.
  4. "Minneapolis poet Danez Smith wins Four Quartets Prize". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  5. "Inaugural Four Quartets Prize Finalists Announced - Poetry Society of America". www.poetrysociety.org. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
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