Prize Winners
2025 Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize Winner
LATASHA N. NEVADA DIGGS
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, an interdisciplinary poet and sound artist, has been selected as the 16th Saginaw Valley triennial Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize awardee and will be presented with the prize at a ceremony on March 24, 2026. A trio of judges selected Diggs for her book Village, noting that the collection "explodes with sonic energy and delivers a compelling chronicle of American despair and creativity." In addition to Village, Diggs has published the poetry collection TwERK and several chapbooks. Her interdisciplinary work has been exhibited at prestigious New York museums, including the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art. Diggs earned her MFA in creative writing at California College of the Arts and holds a bachelor's degree from New York University.
Past Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize Winners
- Patricia Jabbeh Wesley (2022, for Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems)
- Douglas Kearney (2017, for Buck Studies)
- Tim Seibles (2014, for Fast Animal)
- David Baker (2011, for Never Ending Birds)
- Robert Pinsky (2008, for Gulf Music)
- Carl Phillips (2005, for The Rest of Love)
- Sherod Santos (2002, for The Pilot Star Elegies)
- Frank Bidart (1998, for Desire)
- Kimiko Hahn (1995, for Earshot)
- Carolyn Kizer (1988, for The Nearness of You)
- John Ciardi (1986, for The Birds of Pompeii)
- Richard Hugo (1976, for What Thou Lovest Well, Remains American)
- Donald Finkel (1974, for Adequate Earth)
- Robert Penn Warren (1971, for Incarnations: Poems, 1966-1968)
- Howard Nemerov (1968, for The Blue Swallows)
Douglas Kearney
2017
Kimiko Hahn
1995
Robert Pinsky
2008