Marie Ponsot, a poet known for her bold reimaginings of traditional forms, has been awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, one of the most prestigious (and richest) in poetry, which comes with a $100,000 award.
Ms. Ponsot, 91, joins John Ashbery, W.S. Merwin, Lucille Clifton, Adrienne Rich and others on the list of winners of the prize, which was founded in 1986 to honor lifetime achievement. Her work includes the collections “Easy,†“Springing,†and “The Bird Catcher†(winner of the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award), as well as translations of more than 30 books from French.
As part of the honor, Poetry magazine will publish 11 of her poems in its May issue.
Christian Wiman, the magazine’s editor, called Ms. Ponsot’s poems “marvels of intellectual curiosity and acuity†that “will also break your heart.†Indeed, her 1958 poem “Anti-Romantic†is included in the recent centennial anthology “The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Years of Poetry Magazine.†She will participate in a reading celebrating the anthology on April 8 at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
