Poets & Writers, a nonprofit literary organization that informs creative writers of professional and publishing opportunities and connects them with the literary community, just announced last week that its ninth annual Jackson Poetry Prize, which comes with a $50,000 cash award and is given to an American poet “of exceptional talent,” went to X.J. Kennedy.

Kennedy, known as “Joe” to his friends, has written several poetry collections, the most recent of which include Fits of Concision: Collected Poems of Six or Fewer Lines (2014), He has also written a comic novel, A Hoarse Half-human Cheer (2015), textbooks, including An Introduction to Poetry, with Dana Gioia, and twenty-four children’s books.

Kennedy has also received many accolades for his work, including the Lamont Award for his first book, Nude Descending a Staircase (1961), and an ALA Notable Book Award for In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New & Selected Poems (2007). In 2009, he received the Poetry Society of America’s Robert Frost medal. He has also had work published in the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and Poetry, among other publications.

In a statement, the panel of three judges, poets Heather McHugh, Vijay Seshadri, and Rosanna Warren, explains why Kennedy received the award. “He translates the human predicament into poetry perfectly, balancing wit, savagery, and compassion,” they wrote. “His subtly dissonant rhymes and side-stepping meters carry us through the realms of puzzlement and sorrow to an intimated grace. The size of his poems is small but their scope is vast.”

Poets & Writers will host a reading and reception in Kennedy’s honor in May in New York City.