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 (1920–1991). It is an open competition for sonnets in English that draws about 3000 entries annually. The purpose of the award is to get the public to notice good, but not well-known, poets. The award itself is $1000. From 1995–2004, the sonnets by the winner and by eleven finalists were published in The Formalist; following the discontinuation of The Formalist in 2004, the winning and eleven finalist poems have been published in the literary magazine Measure. The creation of the award is associated with the "New Formalism" movement of late 20th Century poetry.
List of winners
The winners, judges, and winning sonnets from 1994–2011 were posted on a webpage of The Formalist; references for subsequent winners are provided in the table.