Announcing the Winners of the 2026 Adult Contests
Poet Laureate Award
Contest Judge: Jaki Shelton Green
First Place: Gregory Lobas, “Moon Over Gaza” Second Place: AE Hines, “Portrait of a Nation as a House” HM: Lucinda A Trew, “we will all have hollow bones”; Erika Takacs, “To the Girl Sleeping in My Childhood Bedroom”
Alice Osborn Award
Contest Judge: Alexandra Umlas
First Place: Scott Owens, “Poems Can Be About Anything” Second Place: M. Benjamin Thorne, “Harrumph” HM: Peggy Heitmann, “Hourglass”; Doida Gilmer, “While Racoons Roam”; Amanda Niamh Dawson, “Lavender”
Katherine Kennedy McIntyre Light Verse Award
Contest Judge: Sandy Yannone
First Place: Donald L. Wildman, “Armadillo along the Road” Second Place: Lloyd Milburn, “On reading J.D. McClatchy owns two strands of Emily Dickinson’s hair” HM: Glenn Cassidy, “National Novel Writing Month”; Susan Spalt, “Sonnettastro”; Will Martin, “Untitled Tanka”
Bloodroot Haiku Award
Contest Judge: Susan Antolin
First Place: Scott Mason, “in confidence” Second Place: Mary Spadoni, “tan lines” HM: David Green, “thrift store”; Eric Weil, “warbler”; Hannah Ringler, “weeping stars”
Poetry of Courage Award
Contest Judge: Joan Kwon Glass
First Place: Robin Messing, “A Higher Power of My Understanding” Second Place: Mary Spadoni, “5 a.m. Feeding” HM: Brooke Lehmann, “Spring Arrives as Mary Magdelene”; Hilde Weisert, “What We Have Left”; Ellen Williams, “No Poem to Free You”
Bruce Lader Poetry of Witness Award
Contest Judge: Tim Seibles
First Place: Beth Copeland, “On Whitewashing History” Second Place: Erika Takacs, “For Alex Pretti” HM: Bradley Samore, “Westering”; Jean C. McKinney, “From The Journals of Three Iranian Women”; Caitlyn Rose Campana, “The Dress From Lutsk”
Carol Bessent Hayman Poetry of Love Award
Contest Judge: Pramila Venkateswaran
First Place: Chapman Hood Frazier, “Our 50th Solstice” Second Place: Mary Alice Dixon, “I want to remember pillowing in your plump” HM: Kelly White Arnold, “Grocery Store Roses”; Karen Dresser, “Last Call”; Edward Garvey, “The Bed of Yes”
Charles Edward Eaton Award
Contest Judge: Indran Amrithanayagam
First Place: Earl Carlton Huband, “Calling On Shakespeare” Second Place: Chapman Hood Frazier, “The Moth” HM: Mary Hennessy, “An Ode To The Caesura”; Joanne Durham, “Our Colossus”; Scott Owens, “Churchyard Playground, Cokesbury SC”
Mary Ruffin Poole American Heritage Award
Contest Judge: Corrie Lynn White
First Place: Kelli L. Rush, “Brothers” Second Place: Holly Cian, “The Singer”
HM: Elizabeth Rose Bruce, “Post-Factual Politics”; Lloyd Milburn, “At the Pond”; Kathrine Cays, “Shinrin“
Robert Golden Poetry Award
Contest Judge: Jane Wiseman
First Place: Lora E. Hawkins, “The Grammar of Leaving”
Second Place: Sherry Siddall, “For Fletcher Merkel”
HM: Jo Ann Hoffman, “A Pashtun Woman Speaks”; Elizabeth Rose Bruce, “In the Checkout Line”; Bradley Samore, “Dear Old Stockholm”
Jean Williams Poetry of Disability, Disease, and Healing Award
Contest Judge: Amy Baskin
First Place: Dawn Levitt, “Reborn Broken” Second Place: Varun U. Shetty, “Resilience” HM: Hilde Weisert, “Unbidden”; Erika Takacs, “Transparency”; Kaycee Painter, “Marriage Equality”
In Defense of Science Award
Contest Judge: Katie Dozier
First Place: Dick Westheimer, “They Had Truly Gargantuan Explosions”
Second Place: Lora E. Hawkins, “The Second Law of Thermodynamics”
HM: Hilde Weisert, “At Peace in the Pine Barrens”; Jess Skyleson, “Tidal Lock”; Lucinda A Trew, “flying against pewter sky”
Announcing the Winners of the 2026 Student Contests
Travis Tuck Jordan Award (Grades 3-5)
Contest Judge: Molly Bolton
First Place: Sebastian Gyovai, “An Immigrant’s View” Second Place: Soma Kopa, “Dyslexia” Third Place: Drew Murphy, “My Panda Stuffie” HM: Abyad Hussain, “My Ringing Clock”; Cyrus Hollar, “Self Light”; Hazel Falk, “Wire”
Mary Chilton Award (Grades 6-9)
Contest Judge: Tresha Haefner
First Place: Rishi Muppa, “Walking without Words” Second Place: Liz Maceda, “Becoming” Third Place: Nithuna Ramesh, “Fallen Petals” HM: Maxwell Wei, “Caracas to Waxhaw”; Chizara, “The Wisdom of a Teddy Bear”; Sasha Smith, “Math”
Joan Scott Environment Award (Grades 5-9)
Contest Judge: Jennifer Newhouse
First Place: Ishaan Mettu, “The Mariana Trench” Second Place: Iris Christopher “The ABCs of the Rain Forest” Third Place: Akshita Gupta, “Blue Mother”
HM: Cora Taggart, “California’s Beauty”; Charlotte Mathay, “Eyes of Ivy”; Shravan Vijayakumar, “Magic Potion”
Sherry Pruitt Award (Grades 10-12)
Contest Judge: Tyree Daye
First Place: Sophie Lankarani, “Dear Iran After Wolpe” Second Place: Erik Brown, Jr., “WEEDS”
Third Place: Noel Fang, “Estar” HM: Kate Navarro, “Gracias, Reliquia”; Margaux Nelli, “Where Am I From?”; Dylan Zhang, “She Asks If I’ve Eaten”
Undergraduate Award
Contest Judge: Mackenzie Kozak
First Place: Braird Kunde-Kalmus “Sterling, Illinois” Second Place: Hriody Kundu “Triage of Small Things” Third Place: Anna McPherson “Close Enough” HM: Masha Dixon “Cicada Emergence”