Awards

From 1967–1976, a jury of poet-judges including Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wilbur, May Swenson, and others presented the International Poetry Forum’s United States Award and International Award, which included manuscript publication through the University of Pittsburgh Press. These awards gave rise to the Pitt Poetry Series, which remains a major voice in poetry publishing today.

From 1988–2009, the Forum presented the Charity Randall Citation, an award for poets committed to “taking the public presentation of their poetry as seriously as its composition.” This distinguished list of recipients includes a number of Nobel Laureates, U.S. Poet Laureates, and Pulitzer Prize winners, including greats like Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Lucille Clifton, and Naomi Shihab Nye.

Charity Randall Citation 1988–2009

  • Adam Zagajewski

    2009

  • Paul Muldoon

    2008

  • Brian Turner

    2008

  • Sam Hamill

    2007

  • Karen Kovacik

    2007

  • C.K. Williams

    2006

  • Martín Espada

    2005

  • Richard Wilbur

    2005

  • Seamus Heaney

    2004

  • Dana Gioia

    2004

  • Wendell Berry

    2004

  • Eugene J. McCarthy

    2003

  • Billy Collins

    2002

  • Sharon Olds

    2002

  • Ellen Bryant Voigt

    2002

  • Jay Wright

    2001

  • Lawrence Raab

    2001

  • Eamon Grennan

    2001

  • Mary Karr

    2000

  • Edward Kamau Brathwaite

    1999

  • Maxine Kumin

    1999

  • Nancy Willard

    1998

  • Shirley Kaufman

    1998

  • Heather McHugh

    1998

  • Robert Pinsky

    1997

  • Eavan Boland

    1997

  • Louis Simpson

    1996

  • Linda Pastan

    1996

  • Jack Gilbert

    1995

  • Ariel Dorfman

    1995

  • Peter Makuck

    1994

  • Brendan Galvin

    1994

  • Miller Williams

    1993

  • Donald Hall

    1993

  • Carolyn Forché

    1992

  • Derek Walcott

    1992

  • Lucille Clifton

    1991

  • Charles Causley

    1991

  • Sandra M. Gilbert

    1990

  • Karl Shapiro

    1990

  • W.S. Merwin

    1989

  • Tomas Tranströmer

    1989

  • Galway Kinnell

    1988

  • Naomi Shihab Nye

    1988

International Award 1968–1976

  • Paul-Marie LaPointe

    The Terror of the Snows (trans. Douglas Jones), 1976

  • Denis de Rougemont

    The Growl of Deeper Waters (trans. Samuel Hazo and Beth Luey), 1976

  • Odysseus Elytis

    Axion Esti (trans. Edmund Keeley and George Savidis), 1974

  • Tom Lowenstein

    Eskimo Poems from Greenland and Canada, 1974

  • Dennis Scott

    Uncle Time, 1974

  • Abba Kovner

    A Canopy in the Desert (trans. Shirley Kaufman), 1973

  • Tomas Tranströmer

    indows and Stones (trans. May Swenson and Leif Sjoberg), 1971

  • Adonis

    The Blood of Adonis (trans. Samuel Hazo), 1970

  • Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca

    Selected Poems (trans. Talât Sait Halman), 1968

United States Award 1967–1976

  • Gary Soto

    The Elements of San Joaquin, 1976

  • Mark Halperin

    Backroads, 1975

  • Thomas Rabbitt

    Exile, 1974

  • Judith Minty

    Lake Songs and Other Fears, 1973

  • Marc Weber

    48 Small Poems, 1972

  • Larry Levis

    Wrecking Crew, 1971

  • Richard Shelton

    The Tattooed Desert, 1970

  • Shirley Kaufman

    The Floor Keeps Turning, 1969

  • David P. Young

    Sweating Out the Winter, 1968

  • Jan Den Boer

    Learning the Way, 1967