The Formalist

{{Short description|Magazine}}

{{more citations needed|date=February 2012}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox magazine

| title = The Formalist

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| frequency = Semiannual

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| category = New formalist poetry

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| founded = 1990

| finaldate = 2004

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| country = United States

| based = Evansville, Indiana

| language = English

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The Formalist: A Journal of Metrical Poetry was a literary periodical, founded and edited by William Baer,{{cite news|title=William Baer|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-baer#poet|accessdate=23 February 2016|work=Poetry Foundation}} which was published twice a year from 1990 to the fall/winter issue of 2004.{{cite book|author1=Fran Brearton|author2=Alan Gillis|title=The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4uGgXQGmsN8C&pg=PA644|accessdate=23 February 2016|date=25 October 2012|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-956124-7|page=644}} The headquarters of the magazine was in Evansville, Indiana.[http://theformalist.evansville.edu/formalist.htm Contact us] The formalist. Retrieved 23 February 2016.

The Formalist published contemporary, metrical verse. Poets whose work has appeared in the journal include: Howard Nemerov, Richard Wilbur, Derek Walcott, Mona Van Duyn, Donald Justice, James Merrill, Maxine Kumin, Karl Shapiro, W. S. Merwin, May Swenson, W. D. Snodgrass, Louis Simpson, John Updike, Fred Chappell, and John Hollander.

From 1994 to 2005 The Formalist awarded the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award.