The Academy of American Poets announced the Leonore Marshall Poetry Prize 2024 winner on September 26th, 2024. 

The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize was established in 1975 to recognise the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous calendar year. It also honours the memory of Lenore Marshall, a poet, novelist, essayist, and political activist. She authored three novels, three books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and also selections from her notebooks. Additionally, her works appeared in distinguished literary magazines such as The New Yorker, The Saturday Review, and Partisan Review. 

The 2024 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize Winner is Ariana Benson for her book Black Pastoral, published by UG Press in 2023. 

Ariana Benson was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She graduated from Spelman College and holds MA degrees in both poetic practice and scriptwriting. She has also won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and other awards.

Read: How to analyze poems.

Kyle Dargan, Yesenia Montilla and D. A Powell, the 2024 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize Judges, in a tweet by the Academy of American Poets stated that: 

“These meticulously constructed and striking poems carry us through the past in which land was used as a weapon against its own tenders, a present on which love of land manifests as a tenderness both intimate and illuminating, and a future where any field can bloom with wonder.”

The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize winner is awarded a $25,000 prize. She will also receive a ten-day residency at Glen Hollow in Naples, New York, and her book will be distributed to hundreds of Academy of American Poets members. 

Interested in earning from your poetry? Read this essay on how to get started. 

About the Academy of American Poets

It was founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and foster appreciation of contemporary poetry. It is also the producer of Poets.org, Poem-a-Day, National Poetry Month, and more.