The Alice James Award, formerly the Beatrice Hawley Award, is given annually by Alice James Books. The award includes publication of a book-length poetry manuscript and a cash prize (currently $2,000).Poets & Writers > Alice James Books > Beatrice Hawley Award
The award was established by the press in 1986 to honor cooperative member author Beatrice Hawley (Making the House Fall Down, 1977) who died in 1985 at forty-one years of age from lung cancer. The Award was renamed, like its sponsoring publisher, after Alice James "whose extraordinary gift for writing went unrecognized in her lifetime."Aftermatter in The Big Book of Exit Strategies by Jamaal May (Alice James Books, 2016). The Award is a nationally-offered publication prize open to poets at any stage of their careers.
The first award recipient was Linnea Johnson, for The Chicago Home.Alice James Books > Author Page > Linnea Johnson Winners of the award have often gone on to receive national attention and further honors for their winning works, most notably, Brian Turner for Here, Bullet, which received national and international media attention.The New Yorker > The Talk of the Town > Ink: War Poet by Dana Goodyear > 11/14/05New The New York Times Book Review> Review by J.B. of Here, Bullet by Brian TurnerThe NewsHour: Poetry Series > Poet Profile > Brian Turner > PBSThe Guardian > Review by Sarah Crown of Here, Bullet > by Brian Turner > January 26, 2008 Turner also received numerous further awards and honors for his work, including a 2006 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2006 Northern California Book Award in Poetry, the 2006 PEN Center USA "Best in the West" Literary Award in Poetry, a 2007 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, the 2007 Poets' Prize, and the 2009 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship.Alice James Books > Author Page > Brian Turner
Catherine Barnett (Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced, 2003) was further recognized with the 2004 Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, a Whiting Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.New York University >Office of Public Affairs > NYU’s Barnett Receives Guggenheim Fellowship to Write Poetry > May 04, 2006 Mary Szybist (Granted, 2003) was further recognized with the 2004 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and was a 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. B.H. Fairchild (The Art of the Lathe, 1997) was 1998 National Book Award Finalist, and won the 1999 William Carlos Williams Award, the 1999 PEN Center West Poetry Award, the 1999 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and the 1999 California Book Award.
The 2008 winner, Slamming Open the Door, by Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno, was reviewed by The New York Times Sunday Book Review,The New York Times Book Review > My Daughter's Murder, by David Kirby > 04/10/09 and Bonanno was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air by Terri Gross.NPR > Fresh Air > On The Page, Poet Mourns Daughter's Murder > July 29, 2009 > Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno Interviewed by Terri Gross
Beatrice Hawley / Alice James Award Winners
1986: Linnea Johnson, for The Chicago Home 1987: Laurel Trivelpiece, for Blue Holes 1988: Jean Valentine, for Home Deep Blue 1992: Alice Jones, for The Knot 1994: Richard McCann, for Ghost Letters 1995: Forrest Hamer, for Call & Response 1996: Cynthia Huntington, for We Have Gone to the Beach 1997: B.H. Fairchild, for The Art of the Lathe 1998: Laura Kasischke, for Fire and Flower 1999: Amy Newman, for Camera Lyrica 2000: Claudia Keelan, for Utopic 2001: Liz Waldner, for Self and Simulacra 2002: Mary Szybist, for Granted 2003: Catherine Barnett, for Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced 2004: Dobby Gibson, for Polar 2005: Brian Turner, for Here, Bullet 2006: Henrietta Goodman, for Take What You Want 2007: Lia Purpura, for King Baby 2008: Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno for Slamming Open the Door 2009: Reginald Dwayne Betts, for Shahid Reads His Own Palm 2010: Lesle Lewis, for lie down tooAlice James Books > News & Events 2011: Jane Springer, for Murder Ballad 2012: Jamaal May for Hum 2013: Philip Metres for Sand Opera 2014: Richie Hofmann for Second Empire 2015: Elizabeth Lyons for The Blessing of Dark Water 2016: Anna Rose Welch for Noah's Woods 2017: Mia Malhotra for When I See You Again It Will Be With a Different Face 2018: Amy Woolard for Neck of the Woods 2019: Rosebud Ben-Oni for If This is the Age We End Discovery 2020: Aldo Amparán for Brother Sleep 2021: Ina Cariño for Feast 2022: Willie Lee Kinard III for Orders of Service 2023: Esther Lin for Cold Thief Place 2024: R. A. Villanueva for A Holy Dread 2025: Malvika Jolly for Visiting Hours of the World
References
Sources , official website of Alice James Books