Among the winners of this year's Levinson prize and the John Frederick Nims Memorial prize, presented by the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine, were two poets with ties to the University of Iowa, Dean Young and Peter Cole.
The Levinson Prize,presented annually since 1914, is awarded to poets that had published in Poetry magazine in the previous year. The award is possible through the generosity of the Salmon O. Levinson family in the amount of $500.
The John Frederick Nims Memorial prize is for poetry translation, and is also in the amount of $500.
Former Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty Dean Young received the Levinson prize for the poems that appeared in the November 2011 issue of Poetry: Handy Guide, Crash Test Dummies of an Imperfect God, and Dear Bob as well as the two poems that appeared in the February 2012 issue: Spring Reign and Peach Farm. Young's most recent book, Fall Higher is out now from Copper Canyon Press. Bender, a collection of new and selected poems, will be forthcoming.
Nims Memorial award recipient Peter Cole, a poet and Hebrew and Arabic translator, was a 2007 resident of the International Writing Program. The award was given for Cole's translation portfolio The Poetry of Kabbalah, which appeared in the March 2012 issue of Poetry. The Poetry of Kabbalah in its entirety was published in March 2012 by Yale University Press.