September 23, 2020

On September 23, the Academy of American Poets announced the recipients of the 2020 American Poets Prizes. These prizes are among the most valuable and venerable poetry prizes in the United States. This year, the organization has warded more funds to poets than any other organization globally, giving a total of $1,290,250 to poets at various stages of their careers.

Among the recipients was Bennington Writing Seminars faculty member Carmen Giménez Smith, who received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship for “distinguished poetic achievement."

Established in 1936 and given in memory of James Ingram Merrill, with generous support from the T. S. Eliot Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship carries with it a stipend of $25,000 and a residency at the Eliot summer home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Fellows are nominated and elected by a majority vote of the Academy's Board of Chancellors. Past recipients include Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Frost, and Tracy K. Smith.

Carmen Giménez Smith is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Be Recorder (Graywolf Press, 2019), which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry, the PEN Open Book Award, the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Goodbye, Flicker (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry; and The City She Was (Center for Literary Publishing, 2011). Her memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds (University of Arizona, 2010) was a finalist for the American Book Award. Giménez Smith was named one of Poetry Society of America's New American Poets in 2009. She received a Howard Foundation grant for creative nonfiction in 2011 and was a 2019 Guggenheim fellow. She was the guest editor for Poem-a-Day in December 2018, and currently is a Professor of English at Virginia Tech and at Bennington College. Giménez has served as the publisher of Noemi Press since 2002. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.