The Poetry Foundation awards $195k in prizes for poetry craft, service, and criticism

CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Poetry Foundation presents the recipients of its 2026 Pegasus Awards, a suite of literary prizes established by the Foundation in 2004:

• Robert Pinsky, 2026 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, $100,000
• Luis J. Rodriguez, 2026 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry, $25,000
• Nikki Grimes, 2027–2028 Young People’s Poet Laureate, $50,000
• Jason Schneiderman, 2026 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism, $10,000
• Meg Day, 2026 Pegasus Poetry Book Prize, $10,000

“This year is special because it marks four decades of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, 20 years of the Young People’s Poet Laureate, and the first year of the Pegasus Poetry Book Prize,” said Poetry Foundation president and CEO, Michelle T. Boone. “On behalf of the Poetry Foundation staff and trustees, I’d like to express our sincere congratulations and to welcome these five remarkable writers into the legacy of the Pegasus Awards.”

The recipients will be honored at a private ceremony in Chicago in October 2026. On Friday, October 23, 2026, the public will have the opportunity to celebrate honorees at the 2026 Pegasus Awards Reading, a free event at the Poetry Foundation.

Pegasus Award Recipients

Robert Pinsky, former United States Poet Laureate, joins four decades of Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honorees

The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, first awarded to Adrienne Rich in 1986, recognizes a living poet for outstanding literary achievement; 40 years later, it remains one of the most prestigious awards given to poets in the United States. Robert Pinsky, the 2026 recipient of the Prize, is one of the foremost poet-critics in the United States, publishing books of poetry, translation, and criticism over a multi-decade career. A three-term United States Poet Laureate, Pinsky’s additional honors include a PEN/Voelcker Award, a William Carlos Williams Prize, a Lenore Marshall Prize, Italy’s Premio Capri, a Korean Manhae Prize, and Chicago’s Harold Washington Award.

Luis J. Rodriguez recognized for a career spanning poetry, publishing, and community organizing

The Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry, awarded to Luis J. Rodriguez, recognizes extraordinary work in poetry through administration, advocacy, education, publishing, or service. Rodriguez’s expansive career includes founding Tia Chucha Press, co-establishing community initiatives such as Guild Literary Complex and Rock A Mole Productions, and his significant role in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Rodriguez has also been honored with a Carl Sandburg Literary Award, a Poetry Center Book Award, a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, and a Paterson Poetry Prize.

Nikki Grimes, author of more than 100 books, named Young People’s Poet Laureate

Nikki Grimes, a 2023 Black Authors Hall of Fame Inductee, is awarded the title of Young People’s Poet Laureate, which acknowledges a career devoted to writing exceptional poetry for young readers. Grimes’s literary accolades include a Coretta Scott King Award, a CSK–Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, an ALAN Award for adolescent literature, a Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and an NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. In addition to the annual stipend, this two-year appointment provides additional programmatic funding in support of a project that promotes poetry to young people and their families, teachers, and librarians.

Jason Schneiderman honored for a critical look at poetry’s place in a digital-first culture

The Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism commends an outstanding book-length work of criticism published in the United States in the prior calendar year, including biographies, essay collections, and critical editions that consider the subject of poetry or poets. Jason Schneiderman is awarded the prize for his book Nothingism: Poetry at the End of Print Culture. Schneiderman has been previously honored with an Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America, a Jerome J. Shestack Award from the American Poetry Review, and a Fulbright Fellowship. The 2026 Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism finalists were Stephanie Burt for Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall, Philip Metres for Dispatches from the Land of Erasure: Essays and Conversations, and Daniel Tobin for The Odeon: Essays on Poetry.

Meg Day becomes the first-ever Pegasus Poetry Book Prize recipient

Meg Day receives the inaugural Pegasus Poetry Book Prize, launched in 2025, for the manuscript Sound Lasso. A partnership with Graywolf Press, the prize recognizes a poet aged 40 or older for their unpublished first or second poetry collection, and includes a residency at Ragdale. A recipient of an Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship and an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, Day was also named the 2024 Guggenheim Poet-in-Residence and the 2025 SouthArts State Fellow for Literary Arts for North Carolina. The 2026 Pegasus Poetry Book Prize finalist was Paul Hlava Ceballos for his manuscript The Far Edge of the Wound Is a Field.

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation transforms lives through the power of words. Our work aims to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. Follow the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Download Photos

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2026-pegasus-awards-celebrate-poetrys-range-302874366.html

SOURCE Poetry Foundation