Poet Ruth Stone named National Book Award finalist

By Research Advancement • Nov 18, 2002 • News•

Ruth Stone, Bartle professor emerita of English and an active poet since the early 1950s, is among five finalists for the National Book Award in poetry, one of the nation’s top literary prizes.

Stone, 87, was nominated for her eighth volume of poetry In the Next Galaxy, published by Copper Canyon Press. Book Award winners, who will each receive $10,000, will be announced on November 20.

The citation from the sponsoring National Book Foundation reads, “Ruth Stone. . . writes with wise intelligence, resolute passion, and an earned knowledge about how the world really works, drawing inspiration from science, politics, history, and what she has come to know too well about love and loss.”

Stone lives in Vermont and continues to teach courses at BU on a regular basis. She came to BU in 1988 at age 73 as a visiting professor and accepted a full-time position the following year.

She began her teaching career at Harvard in 1950 and has taught in most of the nation’s best creative writing programs. In 1999, Stone’s Ordinary Words, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the recipient of many other honors, including the Academy of American Poets’ Eric Mathieu King Award, the Whiting Award, the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.

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Bartle Professor Ruth Stone Wins National Book Award

Ruth Stone, Bartle professor emerita of English and an active poet since the early 1950s, won the National Book Award for Poetry, one of the nation’s top literary prizes. Stone, 87, was nominated for her eighth volume of poetry In the Next Galaxy, published by Copper Canyon Press. “I think you gave it to me because I’m old,” said Stone with a laugh at the awards dinner last night in New York City. Winners received $10,000. The awards are sponsored by the non-profit National Book Foundation.

Stone lives in Vermont and continues to teach courses at BU on a regular basis. She came to BU in 1988 at age 73 as a visiting professor and accepted a full-time position the following year. She began her teaching career at Harvard in 1950 and has taught in most of the nation’s best creative writing programs. In 1999, Stone’s Ordinary Words, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the recipient of many other honors, including the Academy of American Poets’ Eric Mathieu King Award, the Whiting Award, the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.

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