John Frederick Nims

John Frederick Nims (November 20, 1913 in Muskegon, Michigan – January 13, 1999, aged 85, in Chicago, Illinois) was an American poet and academic.

He graduated from DePaul University, University of Notre Dame with an M.A., and from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in 1945. He published reviews of early works by Robert Lowell and W. S. Merwin. He taught English at Harvard University, the University of Florence, the University of Toronto, Williams College, University of Missouri, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He was editor of Poetry magazine from 1978 to 1984.

The John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize, for poetry translation, is awarded by the Poetry Foundation.

• American Academy of Arts and Letters grant
• National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities grant
• Institute of the Humanities fellowship
• 1982 Academy of American Poets fellowship
• 1986 Guggenheim Fellowship
• 1991 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.
• 1993 O.B. Hardison Prize