Using the following dependency entry in my pom:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.dropwizard</groupId>
        <artifactId>dropwizard-core</artifactId>
        <version>${dropwizard.version}</version> 
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Using an older dropwizard version works fine:

<properties>
    <dropwizard.version>2.0.9</dropwizard.version>
</properties>

But using the most up to date version as listed on mvnrepository:

<dropwizard.version>2.1.2</dropwizard.version>

gives the following error:

Dependency 'io.dropwizard:dropwizard-core:2.1.2' not found

Additionally, using the recommended version in dropwizard's tutorial page does not work either:

<dropwizard.version>2.1.3-SNAPSHOT</dropwizard.version>

I have the following to pull snapshots in my pom:

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>nexus</id>
        <name>nexus-snapshot</name>
        <url>http://localhost:8081/repository/maven-snapshots/</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
        <releases>
            <enabled>false</enabled>
        </releases>
    </repository>
</repositories>

Update:

By deleting io/dropwizard from my ~/.m2/repository directory and invalidating caches & restarting, I was able to load dropwizard version 2.1.2. I am still unable to determine how to properly load the SNAPSHOT version. I don't know what repository settings to add to my pom file in order to correctly link to that dependency.