Help fund the Reuben Jackson Poetry Prize!

Reuben Jackson (10/1/1956–2/16/24) was a poet, jazz scholar, radio DJ, teacher, and music critic. Raised in Washington DC, he went to Goddard College and lived many years in Vermont and in DC. His legacy includes three volumes of poetry, six years hosting Vermont Public Radio’s Friday Night Jazz, countless music reviews, and curation of the Smithsonian’s Duke Ellington Collection.

To honor his legacy, a team of poets and artists are raising funds to establish a poetry prize in his name at Howard University. The prize is part of the Academy of American Poets College Prizes Program, through which many esteemed US poets won their first recognition, including Toi Derricotte, Louise Glück, Allen Grossman, Joy Harjo, and Sylvia Plath. The prize will be endowed in perpetuity and located in Howard University’s Creative Writing Program. Howard has produced some of the country’s most stellar writers, including Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston.

The Reuben Jackson Poetry Prize Project

THIS CAMPAIGN ENDS NOVEMBER 15

—To ensure the prize begins spring 2025