Dana Gioia won the 2018 Poets’ Prize for 99 Poems: New & Selected, published in hardcover by Graywolf in 2016 and released in paperback in 2017. Gioia was honored at a ceremony held at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City on Friday, May 18.
The Poets’ Prize is awarded annually by a committee of 20 poets to the best book of verse published by an American during the preceding year. The prize is administered by Lake Forest College and the $3,000 prize is funded by the members of the committee. “I’m deeply pleased to have the book recognized by this fine award. It is a pleasure to be prized,” Gioia said in a statement.
99 Poems: New & Selected gathered work from across Gioia’s career, including a dozen remarkable new poems. Best known for rigorous craft and use of traditional forms, rhyme, and meter, Gioia’s work is also appreciated widely for its emotional heft, tackling death, grief, love, time, family, and his own mortality. The Washington Post called 99 Poems “one of the most anticipated collections of 2016” and said, “No matter what the topic—mystery, place remembrance, imagination, stories, songs, love—or the form, these polished pieces are vibrant and inviting.”
Publishers Weekly writes: