The 2026 Debut Chapbook Winner and Finalists
The moment is finally here! We’ve read innumerable manuscripts, combed through dozens of individual poems, cried, laughed, agonized, and celebrated—all while adhering to our temporary pledge of sworn secrecy—to bring you the winner of the 2026 Debut Chapbook Prize.
The decision wasn’t easy. It’s clear that submitters put their best writerly foot forward for this contest, and our team of readers did amazing work engaging each manuscript with care and intention.
Guest Judge Patricia Smith was similarly meticulous and passionate, even admitting that this contest was one of the hardest she’s ever judged. Still, she made the final call, sending one exceptional chapbook into the spotlight.
Our winner will receive $2,000, and their chapbook will be published in summer 2027.
Let’s all give a big congratulations to…
WINNER
Amy Bagwell
I remember it crazy
Guest Judge Patricia Smith comments:
“No matter how we try to shimmer up our public, front-facing lives, one truth will eventually hit–and when it hits, it hits hard: The nature of family is fracture. We can try to disguise the fissure as some other more socially palatable thing, but in the end we are irreparably human in the ways we love, betray, worship, demean, lionize and abandon. “I remember it crazy,” holds us still in that unexamined dark until we are reminded that, despite the pain that often bonds our blood, family is all we have.”
Here’s a bit of the work—
when you ask how visiting my folks is going
once, a man ran into our vet’s office
with a bobcat in a cotton sack,
swirling and howling,
ready to explode.
when I go back,
I am that bobcat. all they
see is the sack. I am the sack.
and I am the hand holding it closed.
About our winner —
Amy Bagwell’s poems have been recently published in Zone 3, Folio Literary Journal, Westchester Review, and American Literary Review. She is a co-founder of the Charlotte nonprofits Goodyear Arts and Freestanding Poems and teaches English at Winthrop University.
The Finalists
Al Favilla
Carole Stasiowski
Naomi Ovrutsky
Dania Bowie
Ashley Warner
TW Sia
Hajer Requiq
Thank you so much to everyone who submitted. Thank you to our dedicated reading team, Amy Bagwell, and Patricia Smith. While we’re sad to see this reading period end, we couldn’t be happier to begin the production season for I remember it crazy. Please keep an eye out for Amy Bagwell’s first chapbook in summer 2027.
