[1][2] Born to Margaret and Dan Arthur Swenson, she was the eldest of 10 children in a Mormon household where Swedish was spoken regularly and English was a second language.

She also translated the work of contemporary Swedish poets, including the selected poems of Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer.

She is buried in the Logan City Cemetery, and her grave is marked by a granite bench on which is etched some of her poetry.

Swenson's sense of imagery also lends itself to erotic poems, as she describes human bodies, breasts, limbs, and the "pelvic heave of mountains".

Open to published and unpublished writers, with no limitation on subject, the competition honors May Swenson as one of America's most vital and provocative poets of the twentieth century.

Judges for the competition have included Mary Oliver, Maxine Kumin, John Hollander, Mark Doty, Alice Quinn, Harold Bloom, Garrison Keillor, Edward Field and others from the first tier of American letters.