The National Poetry Series (NPS), an awards program that publishes five exceptional poetry manuscripts and allocates five corresponding cash awards annually, has increased the value of its cash awards. Thanks to a generous grant from the Lannan Foundation, instead of receiving $1,000, the awardees will now each receive $10,000.

This year, the winners of the $10,000 prize include Simeon Berry for Monograph (forthcoming from University of Georgia Press); Joshua Poteat for The Regret Histories (HarperCollins); Ed Pavlic for Let’s Let That Are Not Yet: Inferno (Fence); Nancy Reddy for Double Jinx (Milkweed Editions); and Sarah Vap for Viability (Penguin).

Daniel Halpern, NPS director and founder, said that the increase in the award money came as a surprise, since the thirty-five-year-old organization was on the verge of closure last December, unable to pay the salaries of its two employees or make the rent of its office in Princeton, New Jersey. He credits the triumphant turnaround to NPS’s own efforts to raise funds and to others’ generous donations: “We raised (from December through March) enough money to continue for at least another year. I think partly due to this success, Lannan wanted to create a really meaningful prize—publication and money. Overall, I was amazed by the support the series received.”

Check out last year’s winners of the Open Competition or learn how to become a sponsor. An unofficial list of all the winners from 1979 through 2013 is available.