2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal Award
On behalf of the Stanley Kunitz bequest to the Worcester County Poetry Association, the Medal committee is pleased to announce the opening of nominations for the 2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal, the tenth to be awarded since 2015.
The medal is presented annually to a person with a strong Worcester County (Massachusetts) connection who best exemplifies Stanley Kunitz’s lifelong commitment to poetry and poets. The award recognizes an individual’s commitment to poetry as Kunitz lived it: teaching poetry, mentoring poets, speaking poetry, publishing poetry, and supporting organizations that nurture poetry.
Letters of nomination should provide detailed support explaining how the nominee nurtured poetry as defined above. Because the yearly award is singular and cannot honor all worthy applicants, past nominations may be reactivated for 2024 once nominators notify the committee chair Judy Ferrara (J.Ferrara.artist.writer@gmail.com) to keep the nomination active.
Nominations should be mailed to:
The Stanley Kunitz Medal, c/o Worcester County Poetry Association,
P.O. Box 804, Worcester, MA 01613
between December 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, or email your nomination and Word documents to the committee chair. The award announcement will be made in the spring of 2024, followed by a splendid ceremony at the Worcester Historical Museum, coinciding with Kunitz’s birthday in the last week of July. Please visit www.worcestercountypoetry.org Programs/Stanley Kunitz Medal for more details.
The 2024 Stanley Kunitz Medal committee wishes to recognize and thank the following volunteers who have served to bestow this honor in the past: Rodger Martin, chair (2013-2021), Kent Ljungquist (2017-2021), Karen Sharpe (2019-2021), Robert Steele (2015-2016), and E. Robert Cronin (2015-2018).