Yusef Komunyakaa and Joan Larkin Win Major Academy of American Poets Prizes

Yusef Komunyakaa has been awarded the Academy of American Poets 2011 Wallace Stevens Award, which comes with a $100,000 purse. Joan Larkin received the 2011 Academy Fellowship, which comes with a $25,000 purse.

From the announcement:

New York, September 12—Yusef Komunyakaa has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. The $100,000 prize recognizes outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry. Joan Larkin has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 Academy Fellowship. The Fellowship is awarded annually to a poet for distinguished poetic achievement and provides a stipend of $25,000. The Academy's Board of Chancellors, a body of fifteen eminent poets, selects the Wallace Stevens Award and Academy Fellowship recipients.

Yusef Komunyakaa and Joan Larkin will be honored at the fifth annual Poets Forum, October 20-22, in New York City. They will read from their work at the Poets Awards Ceremony on Friday, October 21, 7:00 p.m. at The New School's Tishman Auditorium.

Huzzah, Komunyakaa! Huzzah, Larkin!