This year’s National Book Awards will be announced this Wednesday and former Vermont State poet This year’s National Book Awards will be announced this Wednesday and former Vermont State poet Ellen Bryant Voigt is among the finalists for that honor. is among the finalists for that honor. Voigt’s latest book, "Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976 to 2006"will receive a silver medal at the gala pre-ceremony in New York on Tuesday night. The final outcome is still intentionally cloaked in mystery.
Voigt has received many honors and awards for her poetry. In addition to serving as Vermont state poet from 1999 to 2003, she’s a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 1976, she founded the nation’s first low-residency Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Writing Program at Goddard College.
She grew up on a farm in Virginia but she’s lived in Vermont since 1969. She spoke with VPR’s Jane Lindholm about the award and her poetry.