The Robert Creeley Foundation was a poetry foundation based in Acton, Massachusetts, dedicated to honoring the legacy of American poet Robert Creeley.^[1] 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 2000.^[2]

Robert Creeley participated in selecting the award winners until his death in 2005.^[3]

Robert Creeley Award

The following are the winners of the Robert Creeley Award:^[4]

• 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^[5]
• 2009 — Sonia Sanchez
• 2010 — Gary Snyder^[6][7]
• 2011 — Bruce Weigl
• 2012 — Thomas Lux
• 2013 — Naomi Shihab Nye
• 2014 — Mary Ruefle^[8]
• 2015 — Ron Padgett^[9]
• 2016 — Tracy K. Smith^[10]
• 2017 — Marie Howe^[11]
• 2018 — Mark Doty^[12]

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.^[13] 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:^[14]

• 2018 — Malia Chung (Milton Academy) and Jocelyn Shen (Phillips Academy)

• 2017 — Emma Crockford (Rising Tide Charter High School) and Claudia Inglessis (Buckingham Browne & Nichols)

• 2016 — Alma Bitran (Brookline High School) and Samantha Mackertich (Walnut Hill School for the Arts)

• 2015 — Nicole Blackwood (Newburyport High School) and Sequoia LeBreux (Mohawk Trail Regional High School)

• 2014 — Talin Tahajian (Belmont High School)

• 2013 — Charina Hanley (ABRHS) and Talin Tahajian (Belmont High School)

• 2012 — Soubhik Barari (ABRHS) and Alessandra Davy-Falconi (Boston University Academy)

• 2011 — Soubhik Barari (ABRHS) and Emily Sager (ABRHS)

• 2010 — Andy Vo (Boston Latin) and Melanie Wang (Wayland High School)

• 2009 — Kaila Guilmet (ABRHS) and Anna Cataldo (Concord-Carlisle)

• 2008 — Michael Bottari (ABRHS) and Peter Boskey (Concord Academy)

• 2007 — Brendan Fitzmaurice (ABRHS)

References