The Patricia Cannon Willis Prize for American Poetry is a book prize associated with the Bollingen Prize; it is awarded every two years for a book published in the award period written by an American poet at any point in their career. The winning poet recieves a $25,000 cash prize. 

 

The Bollingen Prize has long been a hybrid of a lifetime achievement award and book prize – for decades the prize was been awarded to a senior poet worthy of a lifetime achievement award for a book published during the award period. Beginning in 2025, reference to recent publication has been removed from the award criteria and the Bollingen Prize will officially be awarded as a lifetime achievement honor. In formalizing the Bollingen as a lifetime achievement prize, the Beinecke Library added a new companion poetry book prize. The Patricia Cannon Willis Prize for American Poetry honors a book published in the award period written by an American poet at any point in their career.

 

The Willis Prize honors literary historian, scholar, and rare book and manuscript curator Patricia Cannon Willis. Willis’s commitment to American poetry and to the growth and development of the work of countless poets, scholars, librarians, and students is legendary. As a curator at Beinecke Library, Willis expanded the Yale Collection of American Literature by acquiring the papers of diverse poets and writers, representing a wide and inclusive view of American literature; as a scholar Willis enlarged the cannon of American Modernism with her pathbreaking research and scholarship on poet Marianne Moore and other women poets of the period; as a library professional, Willis worked to diversify library, book trade, and academic professions by mentoring many women and people of color. As director of the Bollingen Prize for more than 20 years, Willis stewarded the Prize through the turn of the twenty first century. 

 

Pat Willis in 2009