In 2006, P&W established the Jackson Poetry Prize, given to honor an American poet of exceptional talent who deserves wider recognition. The award, generously funded by the Liana Foundation, is designed to provide what all poets need: the time and encouragement to write. The $50,000 prize is among the largest monetary awards given to a poet. The first recipient was Elizabeth Alexander, pictured at a celebratory reading at the Nabi Gallery in New York City.

In 2005, P&W began administering the Amy Award, which honors women poets age thirty and under who live in the New York City metropolitan area and on Long Island. Paula Trachtman (left), sponsor of the Amy Award, is pictured with 2007 Amy Award winners Mrigaa Sethi, Shabnam Piryaei, and Jessica Max Stein (left to right).

Writers Colson Whitehead (center) and Jonathan Lethem (left) celebrated at Poets & Writers thirty-fifth anniversary party at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City in 2005.

Poets & Writers created the Writers Exchange Award in 1984 to introduce emerging writers to the New York City literary community. Seventy-six writers from thirty states have received this award to date. Anthony C. Brusate (bottom left) and Constance Alexander (bottom right), were the 2004 winners from Kentucky. Sigrid Nunez (top left) was the fiction judge and Tim Seibles (top right) the poetry judge.

In 2003 the Writers for Writers Award was presented to Bob Holman, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan (left to right), pictured with poet Billy Collins.

Special events connect writers with audiences. In 2003, P&W and Barnes & Noble celebrated National Poetry Month with a poetry reading called “April Is the Cruelest Month.” Pictured (left to right) are P&W executive director Elliot Figman with poets Joan Murray, Sapphire, Regie Cabico, Timothy Liu, and Molly Peacock.

Seniors are among the key audiences served by the Readings/Workshops program. From 2003 to 2005 P&W sponsored a writing workshop for Holocaust survivors led by poet Veronica Golos (bottom center) at the Holocaust Memorial & Education Center of Nassau County, New York. Also pictured is Bonnie Rose Marcus (second from right), director of the R/W (East) program.

In 1993, P&W opened an office in California. It is currently staffed by Jamie Asaye FitzGerald and Cheryl Klein, pictured at the Asian Pacific American Book Festival in 2007. The California office administers R/W (West), which supports writers in California, Houston, Seattle, and Tucson and convenes regional meetings for writers and literary presenters.

Through contributions to P&W’s first capital campaign, Writers Matter, the Readings/Workshops program expanded its work of supporting writers in New York and California to six new cities: Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle, Tucson, and Washington, D.C. In March 2008, R/W supported five poets at the Split This Rock Festival: Poems of Provocation and Witness, in Washington, D.C.

In 1999, Poets & Writers Magazine was redesigned. The July/August issue features a four-color cover highlighting fiction writer Michael Cunningham.