Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry - Definition and Overview

The Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry is a biennial prize given by the Library of Congress on behalf of the nation in recognition for the most distinguished book of poetry written by an American and published during the preceding two years. The winner is chosen by a three-member jury appointed by a selection committee composed of the Librarian of Congress, the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, a publisher named by the Academy of American Poets and a literary critic nominated by the Bobbitt family. The $10,000 prize is donated by the family of the late Mrs. Rebekah Johnson 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.

Winners:

• 1990 - James Merrill for The Inner Room
• 1992 - Louise Glück for Ararat and Mark Strand for The Continuous Life
• 1994 - A. R. Ammons for Garbage
• 1996 - Kenneth Koch for One Train
• 1998 - Frank Bidart for Desire
• 2000 - David Ferry for Of No Country I Know: New and Selected Poems and Translations
• 2002 - Alice Fulton for Felt

See also: List of poetry awards

External links

• The Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/poetry/)