The Poets' Prize is given every year for the best book of poetry published by a living American poet in the two years before the award year. The prize, which is $3000, is donated by a group of about 20 American poets. Each member of this group nominates two books and also helps judge the competition. The Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City holds the annual awards ceremony in May. This event includes readings by the winner and other finalists. The prize was started by Robert McDowell, Frederick Morgan, and Louis Simpson. The current co-chairs of the prize committee are Robert Archambeau and Marc Vincenz.

Winners

Each year is connected to an article titled "[year] in poetry":

• 2018— Dana Gioia — 99 Poems: New and Selected (Graywolf Press, 2016).
• 2017— Ernest Hilbert — Caligulan (Measure Press, 2015).
• 2016— Erica Dawson — The Small Blades Hurt (Measure Press, 2014).
• 2015— Mary Jo Salter — Nothing by Design (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).
• 2014— George Green — Lord Byron's Foot (St. Augustine's Press, 2012).
• 2013— Robert B. Shaw — Aromatics (Pinyon Press, 2011); David Wojahn — World Tree (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011).
• 2012— Ned Balbo — The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems (Story Line Press, 2010).
• 2011— Tony Barnstone — Tongue of War (BkMk Press, 2009).
• 2010— Jane Shore — A Yes-or-No Answer (Houghton Mifflin, 2008).
• 2009— Ellen Bryant Voigt — Messenger: Selected Poems 1976–2006 (Norton, 2007).
• 2008— A. E. Stallings — Hapax (Triquarterly, 2006).
• 2007— Brian Turner — Here, Bullet (Alice James Books, 2005).
• 2006— Catherine Tufariello — Keeping My Name (Texas Tech University Press, 2004).
• 2005— Robert Wrigley — Lives of the Animals (Penguin, 2003).
• 2004— X. J. Kennedy — The Lords of Misrule: Poems 1992–2002 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).
• 2003— Betty Adcock — Intervale: New and Selected Poems (Louisiana State University Press, 2001).
• 2002— Robert Mezey — Collected Poems, 1952–1999 (University of Arkansas Press, 2001).
• 2001— Philip Booth — Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950–1999 (Viking Penguin, 1999).
• 2000— Wendell Berry — The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Counterpoint Press, 1998).
• 1999— Marilyn Nelson — The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (Louisiana State University Press, 1997).
• 1998— Leon Stokesbury — Autumn Rhythm: New and Selected Poems (University of Arkansas Press, 1996); Sydney Lea — To the Bone: New and Selected Poems (Illinois University Press, 1996).
• 1996— Josephine Jacobsen — In the Crevice of Time (Johns Hopkins University, 1995).
• 1995— Marilyn Hacker — Selected Poems 1965–1990 (Norton, 1994).
• 1994— Jared Carter — After the Rain (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1993).
• 1993— Maxine Kumin — Looking for Luck (W. W. Norton and Co., 1992).
• 1992— Adrienne Rich — Atlas of the Difficult World (W. W. Norton and Co., 1991); Dana Gioia — The Gods of Winter (Graywolf, 1991).
• 1991— Mark Jarman — The Black Riviera (Wesleyan University Press, 1990); John Haines — New Poems: