Finalists

Our fifty poets for the 2026 anthology appear below. Please join us in congratulating them!

• Conal Abatangelo, “Midwife”
• Genaro Aguilar Saucillo, “Lola Álvarez Bravo, ‘El ruego,’ Oaxaca, México, 1945”
• Megan J. Arlett, “1973 from Sussex to Aintree”
• Zach Bartles, “Give Rest”
• Jo Bear, “Archive of Absence”
• Veronica A. Bettencourt, “In Laughter, In Strife”
• Ellie Black, “Patient”
• DeeSoul Carson, “Pantone 17-3817”
• Trinity Catlin, “Sugar-Pig”
• Matt Dhillon, “Butt Joint”
• Elizabeth Diebold, “Meditation at Forty-Something as the World’s Southernmost Tree”
• Amy Dougher-Solórzano, “Still Life with Taylor Ham Sandwich”
• Caitlin Doyle, “Love Letter to the Algorithm”
• Sara Dudo, “Glass Partita”
• James Foss, “Sawing a Poem in Half Magic Trick”
• Quinn Franzen, “The Name of Action”
• Anastasia K. Gates, “The Tomato Was Once Thought”
• Shelby Handler, “The Daughters Demand”
• Chelsea Christine Hill, “Anyway, Here’s “Wonderwall””
• Kaley Hutter, “Taking the Name”
• Kaylee Young-Eun Jeong, “Garage”
• Sheng Kao, “Admission”
• Aris Keshav, “Part Time”
• Ai Khanoum, “Some Stories Don’t Need Repeating”
• Collin M. Kim, “Donation Day”
• Danielle Kotrla, “The Blues”
• Jingyu Li, “And Other Predators”
• Sacha Marvin, “All My Brother Wanted”
• Gabriela Mayes, “How to Pick Guava”
• Olga Mexina, “In the Psych Ward”
• Anastasios Mihalopoulos, “Thoughts on the Invention of the Alphabet from a Cottage in Prince Edward Island”
• Rebecca Morton, “Not Here”
• Lo Naylor, “at the baggage claim in JFK”
• Nome Emeka Patrick, “The Photographer”
• Michael O’Ryan, “Against Logos”
• Christian Paulisich, “A Fly Buzzed at the Feast on the Third Anniversary of Your Death”
• Nina C. Peláez, “Birthday: Haibun”
• Eliana Reeves, “How to Love a Sinking Island”
• mike rosen, “What Do You Do with a Garden in Autumn? I Mean, What Do You Do with All Your Roots?”
• Arpita Roy, “Watching Men in Black after a Road Trip to LA”
• Javier Sandoval, “To an Older Brother in the Woods”
• Annie Schumacher, “The Day Continues, As Days Do”
• Ellie Stimpson, “Piano Sonata No.14 in C-Sharp Minor”
• Talan Tee, “Combianatorics”
• Tariq Thompson, “You Look Just Like the Bastard”
• Ide Amari Thompson, “Sissy in Dub”
• Priscilla Wathington, “Daly City Council Meeting, Item 16”
• Gwenyth Wheat, “Rare Occasions”
• Ariana Yeatts-Lonske, “To the Man in My Neighborhood Who Harassed Me for Ambulatory Wheelchair Use”
• Matthew Charles Zhao, “The Ids of March”

Updated Sept. 13, 2026