We are very excited to announce the winners of The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize for 2026 and look forward to sharing their chapbooks with you in February 2027. Thank you to all of the poets who entered our seventh annual contest.
And special thanks to our wonderful judge, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer!
Winners:
GRAND PRIZE
Sam Aureli (Massachusetts) for That’s Not My Shadow
(selected by Guest Judge, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer)
EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD
Dick Westheimer (Ohio) for Eve Corrects the Record
(selected by Shawn Aveningo Sanders)
Finalists:
Sharon Charde (Connecticut) for Rough Air
Ciel Downing (Oregon ) for Marginalized People’s Guide to Survival
Jerome Gagnon (California ) for Opening to Wildness
Rachel Greve (Wisconsin ) for Sapiens, Sapiens
Jackleen Holton (California) for Country at Half-Mast
Carolyn Martin (Oregon) for Brainstorming
Andrea Potos (Wisconsin) for My Mother and Lipstick
Penelope Scambly Schott (Oregon) for The Field Mouse’s Child
Kathleen Stancik (Washington) for The Rope Bridge
Susan Vespoli (Arizona ) for The Gut Is an Aquarium of Odd Sea Creatures
We will be open again for contest submissions in Feb. 1, 2027
Our guest judge will be Ellen Bass. Details Here
