The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly.
It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition"; its value is $100,000[1][2] making it one of the richest literary prizes in the world.
Mary Carole McCauley, writing for the Los Angeles Times, called it "among the most prestigious awards that can be won by an American poet".
[4][5] 1986: Adrienne Rich 1987: Philip Levine 1988: Anthony Hecht 1989: Mona Van Duyn 1990: Hayden Carruth 1991: David Wagoner 1992: John Ashbery 1993: Charles Wright 1994: Donald Hall 1995: A. R. Ammons 1996: Gerald Stern 1997: William Matthews 1998: W. S. Merwin 1999: Maxine Kumin 2000: Carl Dennis 2001: Yusef Komunyakaa 2002: Lisel Mueller 2003: Linda Pastan 2004: Kay Ryan 2005: C. K. Williams 2006: Richard Wilbur 2007: Lucille Clifton 2008: Gary Snyder 2009: Fanny Howe 2010: Eleanor Ross Taylor 2011: David Ferry[6] 2012: W. S. Di Piero[7] 2013: Marie Ponsot[8] 2014: Nathaniel Mackey[9] 2015: Alice Notley[10] 2016: Ed Roberson 2017: Joy Harjo 2018: Martín Espada[11] 2019: Marilyn Nelson 2020: Marilyn Chin[12] 2021: Patricia Smith 2022: Sandra Cisneros, CAConrad, Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Juan Felipe Herrera, Angela Jackson, Haki R. Madhubuti, Sharon Olds, Sonia Sanchez, Patti Smith and Arthur Sze[13] 2023: Kimiko Hahn[14]
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