Poetry Alum Mei-mei Berssenbrugge '73 Awarded The Frost Medal

Chinese-American poet and Writing alum Mei-mei Berssenbrugge '73 is this year’s recipient of The Frost Medal awarded by Poetry Society of America. The Frost Medal, named after American poet Robert Frost, is a lifetime achievement awarded annually to a poet by the board of the Poetry Society of America. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious poetry prizes in the country, and past awardees include Wallace Stevens, Marianna Moore, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, and Nikki Giovanni, who received the award last year. 

Berssenbrugge’s work is notable for its swift shifts between abstract language and focused accounts of daily observations. She relies on personal experience to offer a philosophical mediation on subject matter, often relying on collage-like diction to produce surprising juxtapositions of words and concepts. Berssenbrugge also tends to focus on the idea of both cultural and linguistic alienation.

"For five decades, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge has written poetry with her signature languid long line that pushes language beyond communication into realms of habitation, exposing the complex natures of our inner and external worlds, and maybe the inadequacy of the traditional construct of author speaking to or for a reader," said the Poetry Of American Governing Board. "A much revered poet, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge’s poetry is a vital testament of the rich interplay between the arts, the imagination as an interceding force, and our ability to discern our lives in ways that enrich and allow for further evolution beyond its own making."

Berssenbrugge was born in Beijing. She is the author of fourteen books, including A Treatise on Stars, which was published in 2020 and shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and The National Book Award. Berssenbrugge’s other works include Hello, the Roses (2013), I Love Artists (2006), and her first published book Fish Souls (1971). Berssenbrugge’s past awards include the Mary McCarthy award for engagement in the public sphere, which she won in 2022. She is the recipient of two NEA fellowships, two Asian American Writers' Workshop awards, and two American Book Awards. Berssenbrugge frequently collaborates with other artists, including visual artist Kiki Smith, and her husband the visual artist Richard Tuttle. In 2024, Berssenbrugge collaborated with composer and Edward H. Case Professor of Music George Lewis on The Crossing Choir’s album Ochre, which won a Grammy in 2025. Berssenbrugge has taught at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Sante Fe. She served as a founding editor of Tyuonyi Magazine and lives between New Mexico and New York.