Field Knowledge

There were more than 360 entries for this year's Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, and it took Waywiser Press's screening panel three months of careful reading, deliberation, and discussion to narrow the field, first to twenty semi-finalists, and then to ten finalists. The latter (stripped of all identifying references) were then sent to this year's judge. Mr J.D. McClatchy (poet, editor of the Yale Review, and the late Anthony Hecht's literary executor), who, while acknowledging the considerable strengths of all ten finalists, had no doubt about Field Knowledge being the entirely deserving winner.