Marilyn Nelson, professor emerita at the University of Connecticut, will be honored with the 2012 Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America. She was honored for “her distinguished lifetime service to American poetry.” Professor Nelson will receive the award and deliver the Frost Lecture at the annual awards ceremony of the Poetry Society of America in New York City in April.
Professor Nelson taught in the English department at the University of Connecticut from 1978 to 2002. In 2004 she founded the Soul Mountain Retreat in East Haddam, Connecticut, a nonprofit organization that provided writers from around the world an environment where they could concentrate on their craft. The retreat closed in 2010.
Professor Nelson served as poet laureate of the state of Connecticut from 2001 to 2006. Currently, she is the poet-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.