"The jury gives the award to the master of vastness and detail, that looks at the world as a place for meditation, for his book "Un mondo che non puo' essere migliore" (A world that could not be better). Art critic and refined music expert, Ashbery creates poem-pictures and poem-scores". On December 5 John Ashbery was awarded with the "Premio Napoli Prize" 2009 for International Literature during a ceremony held at the Italian Academy at Columbia University and organized in collaboration with the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute/ Queens College, CUNY. With him, the President of the Fondazione Premio Napoli Silvio Perrella and the famous and multi-awarded poet Charles Simmic
