Richard Wilbur wins Ruth Lilly Poetry award

Pulitzer Prize winner and former poet laureate will get $100,000

updated 7:17 p.m. ET April 21, 2006

CHICAGO - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and translator Richard Wilbur was awarded the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize on Wednesday.

"If you had to put all your money on one living poet whose work will be read in a hundred years, Richard Wilbur would be a good bet," said Christian Winman, editor of Poetry magazine, who announced the award. "He has written some of the most memorable poems of our time, and his achievement rivals that of great American poets like Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop."

The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize was established in 1986 by the Indianapolis heiress and honors longtime achievements of American poets. Past winners include Kay Ryan, John Ashbery, Maxine Kumin and Donald Hall.

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The 75-year-old Wilbur first began writing poetry after serving in World War II. He was named the country's poet laureate in 1987 and has won the National Book Award and the Bollingen Translation Prize.

Wilbur was awarded Pulitzers for his 1956 book, "Things of This World," and for the 1988 book "New and Collected Poems."