| Year | Title | Publisher | Prize Amount | Judges |
| 1989 | Unfinished Painting | Random House | $5,000 | Alfred Corn |
| Sandra McPherson | ||||
| Mary Oliver |
Mary Jo Salter was born in 1954 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1976, she received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, where she had studied with poet Elizabeth Bishop. She received her master’s degree from Cambridge University in 1978 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters from Amherst College in 2010.