New York, NY (June 17, 2025)—The Academy of American Poets, a leading champion of poets and poetry in the United States, announces former Academy Chancellor and celebrated poet Brenda Hillman as the judge of its 2026 First Book Award, the nation’s most generous first-book prize for a poet.
The winner of the 2026 First Book Award will receive $5,000; publication of their manuscript in 2027 by Graywolf Press, a distinguished nonprofit publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; and a six-week, all-expenses-paid residency at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy, where they will be part of a cohort of accomplished international artists, writers, and composers. The winner will also be featured on Poets.org, the nation’s largest publicly funded poetry website, with more than 18 million visitors each year, and in American Poets, the Academy’s biannual members’ magazine, which is distributed to 8,000 readers. The Academy will purchase and send thousands of copies of the published book to its members, making it one of the most widely distributed poetry books of the year.
The 2025 winner, Daniel Moysaenko, was selected by judge Alberto Ríos for his manuscript Overtakelessness, which will be published by Graywolf Press in April 2026. Moysaenko’s debut collection, Ríos wrote, “confronts the brutal realities of a Ukraine scarred by war, fiercely alive in its details. The poet speaks as both witness and survivor, capturing conflict through unforgettable moments that reveal harsh, often inhuman truths.”
Established in 1975, the First Book Award, which is made possible in part by the support of Academy members, celebrates emerging poets and enables the publication of a debut collection. Previous recipients include Christopher Gilbert, Suji Kwock Kim, Matt Rasmussen, Sara Daniele Rivera, Mai Der Vang, Robin Walter, and Jenny Xie.
Submissions to the 2026 Academy of American Poets First Book Award will be accepted online between July 1 and September 1, 2025. The recipient will be announced in April 2026 as part of the Academy’s celebration of 30 years of National Poetry Month. Poets who meet the eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply.
To review the eligibility requirements and official guidelines, and to submit to the Academy of American Poets First Book Award, visit https://poets.org/academy-american-poets/prizes/first-book-award.
About Brenda Hillman
Brenda Hillman is the author of eleven poetry collections published by Wesleyan University Press, the most recent of which is In a Few Minutes Before Later (2022), and of one prose collection, Three Talks (University of Virginia Press, 2024). Hillman’s honors include awards and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Society of America, along with a Bay Area Book Reviewer’s Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award. Hillman received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in 2012. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017 and was named a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2016. Hillman has taught at the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and the University of California, Berkeley. A professor emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California, she serves as the director of poetry for the Community of Writers and lives in California.
About the Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is the United States’ leading champion of poets and poetry. The organization annually awards more than $1.3 million to poets across the nation. It also operates Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded poetry website, and organizes National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world. Additionally, the Academy publishes Poem-a-Day and American Poets magazine, provides free educational resources for K–12 educators and adult learners, and leads the Poetry Coalition, a network of organizations dedicated to promoting the vital role of poetry in our culture.
About Civitella Ranieri
Located in a fifteenth-century castle in the Umbrian region of Italy, Civitella Ranieri is a residency for writers, composers, and visual artists. Since 1995, Civitella has hosted more than 1,000 Fellows and Director’s Guests from all over the world. Civitella enables its Fellows to pursue their work and to exchange ideas in a unique and inspiring setting. For more information, visit civitella.org.
About Graywolf Press
Graywolf Press is a nonprofit literary publisher of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and works in translation. Graywolf Press publishes risk-taking, visionary writers who transform culture through literature. Recent books published by Graywolf have won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize, the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award, among other honors. Visit graywolfpress.org to learn more about our books and forthcoming events, to explore the Graywolf Lab, to join the Graywolf Galley Club, and to donate.