Library Prizes

Through the Bollingen Prize for Poetry and the Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes, Yale Library enables the University to honor and foster extraordinary literary achievement. The library's student prizes recognize and reward outstanding research, book collecting, and graphic design by Yale undergraduate.

Letters and Literature

Bollingen Prize

Establishing by Paul Mellon in 1948, the Bollingen Prize for Poetry has shaped contemporary American letters. The prize is awarded every two years for the best volume of poetry published in those years or for a poet's lifetime achievement in their art. The most recent recipient of the prize, in 2023, is Joy Harjo (pictured). In addition to the distinguished prize winners, the poets, editors, critics, and teachers who have awarded the prize have also helped to shape and define modern American literature. The prize is administered by the Beinecke Library.

Windham Campbell Prizes

First awarded in 2013, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes are global English-language awards that call attention to literary achievement and provide financial support for writers to focus on their work independent of financial concerns. The prizes are open to English-language writers at all stages of their careers from anywhere in the world, as long as they have one published book or one professionally produced play to their credit. Writers may be selected for a body of work or for outstanding promise. The prizes are administered by the Beinecke Library.