Founding Editor of New England Review and former Poet Laureate of Vermont, Sydney Lea is the the 2021 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the highest honor given to an artist by the state of Vermont.

Sydney Lea founded the New England Review in 1978, along with Jay Parini, and served as Editor until 1989. A poet, novelist, and professor, he has published thirteen volumes of poetry, most recently Here, which was published in 2019 by Four Way Books.

Throughout his career he has been awarded Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Rockefeller fellowships. In 1998 Lea’s collection To The Bone: New and Selected Poems won the Poet’s Prize. In 2001, Lea was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts is reserved for artists who are both distinguished in their field and have had a profound impact on the state of Vermont.

The Governor’s Award for Excellence in The Arts will celebrate its awardees with a video tribute later this year. Read more about this year’s award recipients, given by the Vermont Arts Council.