Harvard professor and poet Jorie Graham wins Forward Poetry Prize

The poet's book Places won the 2012 Forward prize for a poetry collection.

Jorie Graham

Poet Jorie Graham, Harvard’s Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory, has become the first American woman to win the Forward Prize for best collection, awarded by England’s Forward Arts Foundation. The prize, which carries an award of £10,000, honors her twelfth collection, Place, published in April.

Graham is a much-honored poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994. The Forward panel of poets and critics called Place “startling, powerful, never predictable” and “a joy” to read. The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation has identified Graham as “perhaps the most celebrated poet of the American post-war generation.” With her students, she organized a live event celebrating Harvard poets, “Over the Centuries: Poetry at Harvard (A Love Story),” for the Arts First festival this spring.

A 2001 profile of Graham in Harvard Magazine explores her poetry, her life, and her teaching, including her 25 years at the Iowa Writers Workshop before she came to Harvard, where she succeeded Seamus Heaney as Boylston professor in 1998.

 

You might also like

Rachel Ruysch’s Lush (Still) Life

Now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, a Dutch painter’s art proved a treasure trove for scientists.

Concerts and Carols at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Tuning into one of Boston's best chamber music halls 

Parks and Rec Comedy Writer Aisha Muharrar Gets Serious about Grief

With Loved One, the Harvard grad and Lampoon veteran makes her debut as a novelist.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Harvard Alum Wins Economics Nobel Prize

Philippe Aghion helped show how “creative destruction” drives growth.

Explore More From Current Issue

Two small cast iron pans with berry-topped desserts, dusted with powdered sugar, alongside lemon slices.

Shopping for New England-made gifts this Holiday Season

Ways to support regional artists, designers, and manufacturers 

People gather near the John Harvard Statue in front of University Hall surrounded by autumn trees.

A Changed Harvard Faces the Future

After a tense summer—and with no Trump settlement in sight—the University continues to adapt. 

A diverse group of adults and children holding hands, standing on varying levels against a light blue background.

Why America’s Strategy For Reducing Racial Inequality Failed

Harvard professor Christina Cross debunks the myth of the two-parent Black family.