PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection

The PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection, established by a bequest from Hunce Voelcker, is given annually to a poet whose distinguished collection of poetry, published in the applicable calendar year, represents a notable and accomplished literary presence. The work will have expanded the scope of American poetry.

The annual award recognizes the importance of the poetry collection as an art form, with no restrictions on the career status of the poet. The award is for a permanent U.S. resident or citizen, of any age and writing in any poetic style, and carries a cash prize of $5,000.

This award was previously administered as the biennial PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry.

All winners, finalists, and longlisters for this award are eligible to receive PEN America’s official emblems. If you are a publisher and interested in obtaining PEN America’s award emblem, please write to [email protected]. For more information, please visit our FAQ page.

2025 Winner

To a poet whose distinguished collection of poetry represents a notable and accomplished literary presence.

Winner: Load in Nine Times, Frank X Walker (Liveright, 2024)

From the judges’ citation: “American history is riddled with irony we can neither escape nor avoid. If anything, our history comes looking for us to atone and to guide our struggles through the present. The poems in Load in Nine Times vividly imagine the voices of Americans born into slavery who suddenly found themselves enlisted as the first colored troops to fight for the Union Army. The result illuminates the individual characters and their particular history, but the book also renders a collective, a chorus singing lament and resilience down through the ages. That the end of the Civil War did little to end the struggle for true freedom is yet another irony this book probes with candor, through poems that exercise formal dexterity and invention. The shadows that these brave men, women and children cast in their own time are still falling on our nation. Frank X Walker’s art humanizes our pain and our hope. The eloquence of this book is wrenching, beautiful, and true.”

History

Eligibility

• A candidate’s work must be a collection of poetry published by a U.S. trade publisher between January 1 and December 31 of the applicable calendar year.
• The book must be a series of individual poems published by a single living author. Anthologies with multiple authors are ineligible.
• Individual poems may have been previously published elsewhere; however, if the submitted book includes work previously published in a collection by the author, the submitted book should include significant new work.
• The author must be a permanent U.S. resident or citizen.
• If you submit a book for this award, you may not submit it for any additional PEN America Literary Award, with the exception of the PEN Open Book Award. Please note that the PEN/Faulkner Award is not considered a PEN America Literary Award.

Submission Guidelines

• All submitted books must be published by a trade or academic publisher between January 1 and December 31 in the applicable year. Self-published books are ineligible for the PEN America Literary Awards.
• Books with more than one original author are ineligible for the PEN America Literary Awards.
• PEN America will only accept submissions from publishers or literary agents. Authors may not submit their own books.
• On the submission form, please select the award you are submitting to.
• Submissions of a book to multiple awards is allowed only in the case of the PEN Open Book Award. Please complete a separate submission for this award if applicable.
• Please submit verified email addresses on the submission form. Your order cannot be processed without an email address. Additional contacts are required so that we may be in contact directly if an author or translator is selected as a longlister, finalist, and/or winner.
• Upload a PDF file of the galley or final manuscript on the book submissions form. Book award submissions will be read as PDF files. Please upload the file saved as BOOKTITLE_AUTHORNAME. For the judges’ convenience, please upload a book file WITHOUT watermarks. Each book file will be kept confidentially between the Literary Awards team and the awards judges. Please note that if a book is longlisted, PEN America may request a physical copy be sent to the judging panel.
• Upload a high-resolution book jacket photo. This may be used later if the book is longlisted, a finalist, or a winner.
• Each submission is $85. Submission fees are not refundable. Please note that all payments must be made via the submission form.
• Submission fees may be waived for publishers whose annual net sales are less than $2 million. You may request an exemption here—this form asks for a letter on company letterhead stating that the press’s annual net sales are less than $2 million. Do not submit your title before requesting your fee exemption, as the Literary Awards Team will provide you with an alternative submission method.
• Once the submitted book is received and reviewed for eligibility by PEN America, it will be passed along to the judges. Please add [email protected] to your address book, as it will be the main point of contact from PEN America.