| Year | Prize Amount |
| 2025 | $100,000 |
Poet and playwright Cornelius Eady was born on January 7, 1954, in Rochester, New York. He attended Monroe Community College and Empire State College. Eady is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Brutal Imagination (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001), which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in Poetry; The Gathering of My Name (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1991), which was nominated for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize; and Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (Ommation Press, 1986), selected by Louise Glück, Charles Simic, and Philip Booth for the 1985 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets.