Northwestern English Professor Mary Kinzie was awarded the O.B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize by the Shakespeare Folger Library, Northwestern announced Thursday.
The recognition, based on both poetry writing and instruction, awards the recipient a $10,000 prize.
The O.B. Hardison Jr. award is considered one of the top poetry prizes in the country. A panel of three judges nominates and selects a winner based on those nominations.
Kinzie has written seven poetry collections, and two volumes of critical essays. Her work has been recognized by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council and MacDowell Colony.
Kinzie has been a member of Northwestern’s faculty since 1975. In 1979, she became head of the creative writing program. Kinzie also teaches, specializing in reading and writing of poetry, Victorian and modern literature, the reading and writing of fiction, American women poets, and the history and theory of prosody.
The award’s namesake, O.B. Hardison Jr., was a poet, essayist, and professor at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He later served as Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library.