New England Poetry Club’s Golden Rose Award, first awarded in 1919, is one of the oldest poetry prizes in the United States. The rose is awarded to “the poet, who by their poetry and inspiration to and encouragement of other writers, has made a significant mark on American poetry.” Past honorees include Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winners and some of the most famous names in American poetry. This year’s winner is Fanny Howe.
Fanny Howe is the author of more than 20 books of poetry and prose; she grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and studied at Stanford University. Howe’s collections of poetry include Second Childhood (2014), Come and See (2011), On the Ground (2004), Gone (2003), Selected Poems (2000),Forged (1999), Q (1998), One Crossed Out (1997), O’Clock (1995), and The End (1992). She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Poetry Foundation, the California Council for the Arts, and the Village Voice, as well as fellowships from the Bunting Institute and the MacDowell Colony. Her Selected Poems won the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. In 2001 and 2005, Howe was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. In 2008 she won an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2009; Second Childhood (2014) was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award.