2026 Poet of Merit Award
The South Dakota State Poetry Society is pleased to announce our 2026 Poet of Merit, Norma Clark Wilson.
Nominees must have been either born in South Dakota or have been a resident for five or more years to be eligible for this lifetime honor.
Norma Wilson is a University of South Dakota English professor emerita. Nature is the primary focus of her poetry and prose. She is the author of Rivers, Wings & Sky, Under the Rainbow: Poems from Mojácar, The Nature of Native America, and many more. Four of her poems are featured in the film and book On Common Ground. Wilson lives in a geo-solar house with her husband, Jerry Wilson, on a prairie bluff northwest of Vermillion.
Featured Book: On Common Ground: Learning and Living in the Loess Hills