The winning volume in the 1986 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition is Above the Land by Julie Agoos. As James Merrill, distinguished poet and judge of the competition, has said: "Framing her travel pieces in American pine, weaving her home truths so openly that the European figures glimmer through, Julie Agoos gives us the best of both worlds. The sincerity, lightness, and composure of her voice make this a remarkably engaging debut."Born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1956, Julie Agoos received a B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1979 and an M.A. from The Writing Seminars at The Johns Hopkins University in 1983. She was awarded the Lloyd McKim Garrison Prize for Poetry and a Briggs Literary Fellowship from Harvard University; in 1978 she also received the Grolier Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and literary magazines, including Antaeus, The Antioch Review, Partisan Review, and Ploughshares.