Poet and essayist Charles Bernstein, the Donald T. Regan Professor of English, has received the 2015 Janus Pannonius Grand Prize for Poetry, along with Giuseppe Conte
of Italy.
Founded in 2012 by the Hungarian PEN association of writers, the award is modeled after the Nobel Prize for Literature and named after the first known and celebrated Hungarian poet. The prize honors and rewards poets who can be considered heirs to human spirituality and culture.
Ceremonies for Bernstein and Conte were held in both Italy and Hungary. The events also featured a reading of their work, including their joint bilingual volume, Tutto il whiskey in cielo/Tutto il meraviglioso in terra (All the Whiskey in Heaven/All the Wonder of the World). The prize comes with 50,000 euros, or $56,405, which will be split between the two men.
This is the second major international poetry prize for Bernstein in 2015; he also won the Münster International Poetry Prize.
