2025 Poetry Contest Winners

ABOUT THIS YEAR'S JUDGE:

Donald Revell is the author of fifteen collections of poetry, most recently Canandaigua, six volumes of translations from the French, and three volumes of critical writings, including Essay: A Critical Memoir. A former Fellow of the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim Foundations, he is the winner of the PEN USA Translation Award and two-time winner of the PEN USA Award for Poetry, and he has twice been awarded Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Honorable Mention

(in no particular order):
Katharyn Howd Machan
  • How Spiders Travel

 

"This poem beautifully coaxes Vision out of Fact, gently but powerfully proposing an ethical imperative that turns out to be a spiritual imperative as well." --Donald Revell

 

"In a way that truly reminds me of Dickinson, this poem converts matters of mortality into a peep into eternity. Very quietly, very subtly, disappointment acquires a nimbus of courage." --Donald Revell

 

"I am enthralled by the syllabic magic of this poem, by the way the poet adventures blank verse measures with a natural authority and tact. This poem revels in the juxtapositions of abstraction with plain speaking in a way that can be downright Shakespearian!" --Donald Revell