The Formalist: A Journal of Metrical Poetry was a literary periodical, edited by William Baer

William Baer

William Baer is an award-winning American writer, editor, translator, and educator.The author of sixteen books, he's a former Fulbright and a Guggenheim fellow, as well as the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing grant....

, which was published twice a year from 1990 to the fall/winter issue of 2004.

The Formalist published contemporary, metrical verse. Poets whose work has appeared in the journal include: Howard Nemerov

Howard Nemerov

Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...

, Richard Wilbur

Richard Wilbur

Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....

, Derek Walcott

Derek Walcott

Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...

, Mona Van Duyn

Mona Van Duyn

Mona Jane Van Duyn was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1992.-Early years:Van Duyn was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She grew up in the small town of Eldora Mona Jane Van Duyn (9 May 1921 – 2 December 2004) was an American poet. She was...

, Donald Justice

Donald Justice

Donald Justice was an American poet and teacher of writing. In summing up Justice's career, David Orr has written, "In most ways, Justice was no different from any number of solid, quiet older writers devoted to traditional short poems. But he was different in one important sense: sometimes his...

, James Merrill

James Merrill

James Ingram Merrill was an American poet whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Divine Comedies...

, Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin is an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1981-1982.-Early years:...

, Karl Shapiro

Karl Shapiro

Karl Jay Shapiro was an American poet. He was appointed the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946.-Biography:...

, W. S. Merwin

W. S. Merwin

William Stanley Merwin is an American poet, credited with over 30 books of poetry, translation and prose. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematically characterized by indirect, unpunctuated narration. In the 1980s and 1990s, Merwin's writing influence derived from...

, May Swenson

May Swenson

Anna Thilda May "May" Swenson was an American poet and playwright...

, W. D. Snodgrass, Louis Simpson

Louis Simpson

Louis Aston Marantz Simpson is an American poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.-Life:...

, John Updike

John Updike

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....

, Fred Chappell

Fred Chappell

Fred Davis Chappell is an author and poet. He retired after 40 years as an English professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997-2002...

, and John Hollander

John Hollander

John Hollander is a Jewish-American poet and literary critic. As of 2007, he is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University...

.

From 1994 to 2005 The Formalist awarded the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award

Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award

The Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award was established in 1994 by The Formalist, a poetry magazine founded by William Baer. The award honors the poet Howard Nemerov, who died in 1991. It is an open competition for sonnets in English that draws about 3000 entries annually. The award itself is $1000...

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External links

• The Formalist website