The following poetry awards, supported through private funds, are given under the auspices of the Library of Congress.
Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
The winner of the 2012 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry is Gerald Stern for his book Early Collected Poems: 1965-1992. The 2012 prize—the 12th to be given and the first to be given for a book of collected poems—is awarded for the most distinguished book of poetry published in the preceding two years, 2010 and 2011. The volume was published by W. W. Norton in 2010. (Photograph on right, ©Martin Desht)
View all Bobbitt Prize winners
The biennial, privately funded $10,000 prize, given on behalf of the nation, recognizes the most distinguished book of poetry written by an American and published during the preceding two years. The prize is donated by the family of the late Mrs. Bobbitt of Austin, Tex., in her memory, and established at the Library of Congress. Bobbitt was the late President Lyndon B. Johnson's sister. While a graduate student in Washington, D.C., during the 1930s, Rebekah Johnson met college student O. P. Bobbitt when they both worked in the cataloging department of the Library of Congress. They married and returned to Texas.
Witter Bynner Fellowships
Steven Schwartz discusses the
Witter Bynner Fellowships
The Witter Bynner Foundation is giving the Library a five-year gift in order to award two or more poets each year, chosen by the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in conjunction with the Library, and to encourage poets and poetry. The fellowships are to be used to support the writing of poetry. Only two things are asked of the fellows: that they organize a local poetry reading and that they participate in a poetry program at the Library of Congress. View all Witter Bynner fellows
The funding source for the fellowships, the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, was incorporated in 1972 in New Mexico to provide grant support for programs in poetry through nonprofit organizations. Mr. Bynner was an influential early-20th-century poet and translator of the Chinese classic the Tao Te Ching, which he named The Way of Life According to Laotzu. He traveled with D.H. and Frieda Lawrence and proposed to Edna St. Vincent Millay (she accepted, but then they changed their minds). He worked at McClure’s magazine, where he published A.E. Houseman for the first time in the United States and was one of O. Henry’s early fans.
The Executive Director of the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry is Steven Schwartz.
