Each year WWBA honors a notable Long Island poet as Long Island Poet of the Year.  The qualifications for this award are that the poet be a distinguished and well-respected poet who champions poetry through their writing, teaching, and support of the Long Island community of poets.

 

Tammy Jean Nuzzo-Morgan was the 2009-2011 Suffolk County Poet Laureate, the founder of The North Sea Poetry Scene, Inc. She first studied Accounting/Business Administration throughout her undergraduate career and later received an MBA from Long Island University. Eventually, she shifted to the arts and received her MFA from Stony Brook University - Southampton.  She is currently a PhD student at Union Institute & University and has been teaching at Briarcliffe College since 2010.

She is the author of five poetry collections: The Bitter, The Sweet (Southampton: North Sea Poetry Scene, 2004); One Woman's Voice (Sound Beach: Street, 2005); Let Me Tell You Something (Sound Beach: Street, 2006); For Michael (Southampton: North Sea Poetry Scene, 2008); and Life's a Beach (Selden: Writers Ink, 2011). She is the editor of the anthology series, Long Island Sounds (Southampton:  North Sea Poetry Scene, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2015), which is now in its sixth volume. Her work has been published in many books, websites, anthologies, and journals.  Nuzzo-Morgan has been awarded the Mobius' Editor-in-Chief Choice Award and the LIWG Community Service Award.