The Yale Series of Younger Poets champions the most promising new American poets. Awarded since 1919, the Yale Younger Poets prize is the longest-running poetry prize in the United States.
Past winners include Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Margaret Walker, W.S. Merwin, John Ashbery, Carolyn Forché, Richard Siken, Eduardo Corral, and Desiree Bailey.
Rae Armantrout, current judge for the prize, selected 5 landmark titles from the series in celebration of National Poetry Month.
1. Theory of Flight by Muriel Rukeyser (1935)
Published in 1935, Theory of Flight is a powerful meditation on the airplane as a challenge to static notions of poetry, sexuality, and politics
ISBN: 9789998000742
OUT OF PRINT
2. A Mask for Janus by W.S. Merwin (1952)
A collection centered in myth and grounded in the poetic forms of many societies, from former United States Poet Laureate
ISBN: 9780300246384
3. Some Trees by John Ashbery (1956)
A capsule of the imaginative life of the individual, from one of the century’s most important poets who took inspiration from French surrealism and abstract expressionism
ISBN: 9780300246377
4. The Lost Pilot by James Tate (1967)
Published in 1967, The Lost Pilot is an homage to the author’s father who died during a bombing mission in World War II
ISBN: 9789998000780
OUT OF PRINT
5. Dream Barker and Other Poems by Jean Valentine (1965)
Dream Barker and Other Poems is the first collection of poetry from New York’s former State Poet
ISBN: 9789998000780
OUT OF PRINT
Mass for Shut-Ins by Mary-Alice Daniel (2023)
Foreword by Rae Armantrout
Mary-Alice Daniel confronts tricontinental culture shock and her curious placement within many worlds in the 117th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets
ISBN: 9780300267990
Rae Armantrout is the award-winning author of eighteen books of poetry, most recently Finalists, Conjure, and Wobble.
More Elections, Less Democracy