Robert Creeley Foundation
The Robert Creeley Foundation was a poetry foundation based in Acton, Massachusetts, dedicated to honoring the legacy of American poet Robert Creeley. The Foundation presented the Robert Creeley Award to a nationally recognized poet each year, and it had an active role in promoting poetry and the arts in the local community, particularly via close relationships with the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and Acton Memorial Library. The Foundation ceased operations in 2018.
The award and foundation stem from a "chance meeting" between Robert Clawson and Robert Creeley in late 2000.
Robert Creeley participated in selecting the award winners until his death in 2005.
Robert Creeley Award
The following are the winners of the Robert Creeley Award:- 2001 — Robert Creeley
- 2002 — Galway Kinnell
- 2003 — Grace Paley
- 2004 — Martín Espada
- 2005 — C. D. Wright
- 2006 — Carolyn Forché
- 2007 — Yusef Komunyakaa
- 2008 — John Ashbery
- 2009 — Sonia Sanchez
- 2010 — Gary Snyder
- 2011 — Bruce Weigl
- 2012 — Thomas Lux
- 2013 — Naomi Shihab Nye
- 2014 — Mary Ruefle
- 2015 — Ron Padgett
- 2016 — Tracy K. Smith
- 2017 — Marie Howe
- 2018 — Mark Doty
Student programs
The Foundation also awarded the Helen Creeley Student Poetry Prize to honor Robert Creeley's older sister Helen, a prize-winning poet while she was a high school student, who was an early mentor to Robert. The prize was awarded to one or two Massachusetts high school students each year.Students received a monetary prize and also the opportunity to read their work as an opener to the Robert Creeley Award winner.
The past winners of the Helen Creeley Student Poetry Prize are:
- 2018 — Malia Chung and Jocelyn Shen
- 2017 — Emma Crockford and Claudia Inglessis
- 2016 — Alma Bitran and Samantha Mackertich
- 2015 — Nicole Blackwood and Sequoia LeBreux
- 2014 — Talin Tahajian
- 2013 — Charina Hanley and Talin Tahajian
- 2012 — Soubhik Barari and Alessandra Davy-Falconi
- 2011 — Soubhik Barari and Emily Sager
- 2010 — Andy Vo and Melanie Wang
- 2009 — Kaila Guilmet and Anna Cataldo
- 2008 — Michael Bottari and Peter Boskey
- 2007 — Brendan Fitzmaurice