Poet X. J. Kennedy has won the ninth annual Jackson Poetry Prize, an award given by Poets & Writers to honor exceptional American poets. The prize includes a $50,000 purse.
A panel of three judges chose Kennedy. The panel included the poets Heather McHugh, Vijay Seshadri, and Rosanna Warren.
“X. J. Kennedy’s forms are perennial, his rhetoric is at once elaborate and immediate, and his language and diction are always of the American moment,” explained the panel in a statement about their decision. “He translates the human predicament into poetry perfectly balancing wit, savagery, and compassion. His subtly dissonant rhymes and side-stepping meters carry us through the realms of puzzlement and sorrow to an intimated grace. The size of his poems is small but their scope is vast.”
Poets & Writers will host a reading and reception in honor of Kennedy in May in New York City.