Monitor poetry critic Elizabeth Lund once wrote in a profile of Kay Ryan, who was the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States from 2008 to 2010, that "[h]er poems – with their compact size and technical precision, their wit and sharp intelligence – have been praised by critics for their ability to do and say things that none of her contemporaries can match."
Finalists for this year's prize in poetry: “The Common Man,” by Maurice Manning and “Break the Glass,” by Jean Valentine.