For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to "Native Guard" by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin).
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "The Republic of Poetry" by Martin Espada (W.W. Norton), and "Interrogation Palace: New & Selected Poems 1982-2004" by David Wojahn (University of Pittsburgh Press).