Every year since 1987, the Sewanee Review has honored a distinguished poet in the maturity of their career with the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry. Established by the physician and poet K. P. A. Taylor in honor of his elder brother, the modernist poet and story writer Conrad Aiken, the Aiken Taylor Award has celebrated poets such as Howard Nemerov, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wendell Berry, Louise Glück, and Billy Collins. In 2019 the Award was given to Carl Phillips. Phillips visited the University of the South in February 2018 for a reading. A lecture on his work by Garth Greenwell is available in our Winter 2020 issue. 

2020 Aiken Taylor Award Announcement

The full list of Aiken Taylor Award recipients includes:

1987: Howard Nemerov
1988: Richard Wilbur
1989: Anthony Hecht
1990: W. S. Merwin
1991: John Frederick Nims
1992: Gwendolyn Brooks
1993: George Starbuck
1994: Wendell Berry
1995: Maxine Kumin
1996: Fred Chappell
1997: Carolyn Kizer
1998: X. J. Kennedy
1999: George Garrett
2000: Eleanor Ross Taylor
2001: Frederick Morgan
2002: Grace Schulman
2003: Daniel Hoffman
2004: Henry Taylor
2005: B. H. Fairchild
2006: Brendan Galvin
2007: Anne Stevenson
2008: John Haines
2009: Donald Hall
2010: Louise Glück
2011: Billy Collins
2012: Debora Greger. Click here to listen.
2013: William Logan. Click here to listen.
2014: Dana Gioia
2015: Marie Ponsot. Click here to listen.
2016: Christian Wiman
2017: Mary Ruefle
2018: Heather McHugh
2019: Carl Phillips