Award Kent fellowship

National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (1981, 1990)

Connecticut Arts Award (1990)

Annisfield-Wolf Award (1992)

Fulbright teaching fellowship (1995)

Contemplative Practices fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies (2000)

J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship (2001)

Poet Laureate of Connecticut (2001-2006)

Lifetime Achievement honor, Connecticut Book Award (2006)

Frost Medal (2012)

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2017)

Wallace Stevens Award (2022)

NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children (2017)