Robert Creeley Foundation

The Robert Creeley Foundation was a poetry foundation based in Acton, Massachusetts, dedicated to honoring the legacy of American poet Robert Creeley. The Foundation presented the Robert Creeley Award to a nationally recognized poet each year, and it had an active role in promoting poetry and the arts in the local community, particularly via close relationships with the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School and Acton Memorial Library. The Foundation ceased operations in 2018.

The award and foundation stem from a "chance meeting" between Robert Clawson and Robert Creeley in 2000.

Robert Creeley participated in selecting the award winners until his death in 2005.

Robert Creeley Award
The following are the winners of the Robert Creeley Award:
 * 2001 — Robert Creeley
 * 2002 — Galway Kinnell
 * 2003 — Grace Paley
 * 2004 — Martín Espada
 * 2005 — C. D. Wright
 * 2006 — Carolyn Forché
 * 2007 — Yusef Komunyakaa
 * 2008 — John Ashbery
 * 2009 — Sonia Sanchez
 * 2010 — Gary Snyder
 * 2011 — Bruce Weigl
 * 2012 — Thomas Lux
 * 2013 — Naomi Shihab Nye
 * 2014 — Mary Ruefle
 * 2015 — Ron Padgett
 * 2016 — Tracy K. Smith
 * 2017 — Marie Howe
 * 2018 — Mark Doty

Student programs
The Foundation also awarded the Helen Creeley Student Poetry Prize to honor Robert Creeley's older sister Helen, a prize-winning poet while she was a high school student, who was an early mentor to Robert. The prize was awarded to one or two Massachusetts high school students each year.

Students received a monetary prize and also the opportunity to read their work as an opener to the Robert Creeley Award winner.

The past winners of the Helen Creeley Student Poetry Prize are:


 * 2018 — Malia Chung (Milton Academy) and Jocelyn Shen (Phillips Academy)


 * 2017 — Emma Crockford (Rising Tide Charter High School) and Claudia Inglessis (Buckingham Browne & Nichols)


 * 2016 — Alma Bitran (Brookline High School) and Samantha Mackertich (Walnut Hill School for the Arts)


 * 2015 — Nicole Blackwood (Newburyport High School) and Sequoia LeBreux (Mohawk Trail Regional High School)


 * 2014 — Talin Tahajian (Belmont High School)


 * 2013 — Charina Hanley (ABRHS) and Talin Tahajian (Belmont High School)


 * 2012 — Soubhik Barari (ABRHS) and Alessandra Davy-Falconi (Boston University Academy)


 * 2011 — Soubhik Barari (ABRHS) and Emily Sager (ABRHS)


 * 2010 — Andy Vo (Boston Latin) and Melanie Wang (Wayland High School)


 * 2009 — Kaila Guilmet (ABRHS) and Anna Cataldo (Concord-Carlisle)


 * 2008 — Michael Bottari (ABRHS) and Peter Boskey (Concord Academy)


 * 2007 — Brendan Fitzmaurice (ABRHS)