About the Joan Swift Memorial Prize
The prize was awarded in 2018 to honor the legacy of Joan Swift, who was among the first poets published in Poetry Northwest (in the fall issue of 1959). Her poems appeared most recently in our Summer Issue 2016. She had a long and notable career as a writer, drawing extensively from her life and experiences in the Pacific Northwest. She died on March 13, 2017, in Edmonds, Washington, at the age of 90.
The Joan Swift Memorial Prize was graciously co-sponsored by Poetry Northwest, The Seattle Review of Books, Esther Altshul Helfgott, Tess Gallagher, Holly Hughes and John Pierce.
photo by Mary Randlett