For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, Seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500).
Awarded to "Moy Sand and Gravel" by Paul Muldoon (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Music Like Dirt" by Frank Bidart (Sarabande Books) and "Hazmat" by J.D. McClatchy (Alfred A. Knopf).