Wilbur Award--any news?
 

It's been more than a year since we heard any news about a new winner of the Richard Wilbur Award, and I wonder whether I've missed an announcement.

Back in the mists of time, two years' winners were chosen at once and the even-year winner was supposed to keep mum for a year. In more recent years, both winners were made public at the same time, but I don't recall that happening last February when it was announced that M.B. Smith had won.

Does anyone have any new news?

It's depressing if this award is no longer being given. I have seen several indications lately that "the formalist movement" is now being regarded as a thing of the past -- instead of winning the victory, as I hoped it would do.

Evansville Review is equally nonresponsive.
I know the university has suffered cutbacks,
including letting go a tenured poet, but
it doesn't take much to post a note about
what's going on. It's basic manners.

I've been told that Evansville Review intends to publish its annual issue this year, having missed 2021 (supposedly due to covid), but I wouldn't bank on it. It seems the university is having financial problems and the funding may not be there. The most recent Willis Barnstone Translation Prize was awarded for the 2019 contest, so they've missed at least two years. I fear the Evansville Review may be going the way of Measure (whose earlier demise seems to have ended the XJ Kennedy Parody award)

Thanks, Gail, John, and Roger. I did at least hear from an inside source that the M.B. Smith book, though delayed, is going to be published, but no news about any more recent award. Yes, it's sad.