Past Awards
You can find our current and future award opportunities here.
2025 Frontier OPEN
2025 Winners
Coming Fall 2025
2025 Misfits Poems Prize
Guest Judged by: Marianne Chan
2025 Winners
Coming Fall 2025
2025 Hurt & Healing Prize
Guest Judged by: Robert Wood Lynn
2025 Winners
Coming Summer 2025
Ode on a Grecian Vacation Challenge
2025 Winners
1st Place: Torri Gosse, with "Ode to the Month That Drinks the Tears of Sleeping Birds"
2nd Place: Rachel Norman, with "ode to the convex"
3rd Place: Melissa McKinstry, with "Ode to My Vitruvian Man"
Hermit Crab Challenge
Guest Judged by: Joshua Lavender
2024 Winners:
1st Place: Joshua Lavender, with "ni·loo (a personal definition)"
2nd Place: Eliza Gilbert, with "Mad Lib"
3rd Place: Steven C. Wright, with "The Timesick Poet"
The 2024 Portrait Prize
2025 Winners:
1st Place: Lillian Emerick Valentin, with "Exhibit in Reverse"
2nd Place: Reed Turchi, with "Jared"
3rd Place: Allison Norwood, "The one where I watch you walk back into the room"
The 2024 Debut Chapbook Prize
Guest Judged by: Nancy Miller Gomez
2024 Winner
Explaining a Dress: Transfeminine Erasure and Vindicatuon , with Jessie Keary
The 2024 Frontier Open
2024 Winners
1st Place: Marianne Kunkel, "To the Man who Hugged Me after I Rear-ended Him"
Finalists:
Tija Tippett, with “Dekopon”
Imani Cezanne, with ” I found this poem in Elva’s kitchen”
Sighle Meehan, with “half-doors, bolted and broken”
Nicole Santalucia, with “A Last Look at Merwin, Stevens, and Williams”
Kate DeLay, with “Baby Talk”
Robin Wang, with “water memory”
Chennelle Channer, with “Talkin with my hands, these ain’t gang signs”
Lee Pelletier, with “I wanna write a poem where Plato fights Zarathustra”
Justin Rigamonti, with “Failure”
2024 Nature & Place Prize
Guest Judged by: Flower Conroy
2024 Winners
1st Place: Zachary Scalzo, with "Sometimes—there’s God—so quickly."
2nd Place: Kiyoko Reidy, with "Cocke County"
3rd Place: Rebekah Sankey, with "The Pond, Early Spring"
“(Not) In Love” Tanka Challenge
2024 Winners
1st Place: Diana Tokaji, with "Physics Lesson: How a Girl Stores Power"
2nd Place: Jonathan Carroll, with "I Was Once"
3rd Place: Rina Malagayo Alluri, with "Seeds of Sorrow"
2023 Ekphrastic Poetry Prize
2023 Winners
1st Place: Ryan Varadi, with "Still Life, Round"
2nd Place: Olga Maslova, with "Tokyo Prepartum"
3rd Place: Apollo Beaber, with "Ode to Joe Brainard"
2023 Award for New Poets
2023 Winners
1st Place: Ira Goga, with "Twelve Thousand Pounds of Salt"
2nd Place: Yinggi Sally Lu, with "Self-Portrait as Apples to Apples"
3rd Place: Yola Gómez, with "Free Museum Day"
The 2023 Roots & Roads Contest
Guest Judged by: Craig Santos Perez
2023 Winners
1st Place: Meriem Evangeline, with "Ancestry Told Through Prophecy"
2nd Place: Yiskah Rosenfeld, with "On Becoming a Woman"
3rd Place: Edgar Morales, with "Motherland"
The 2023 Frontier OPEN
2023 Winners
1st Place: MaKshya Tolbert, with “Autobiography of not a horse”
2023 Finalists
Yolanda J. Franklin, “Pecola Breedlove Watches Zora Tether in Jordan Peele’s US then Nina Simone Sings in the Background”
Zachariah Claypole White, “Today, while reading the definition of OCD”
Amy Wolstenholme, “The Ballad of Aisle Three”
Georgio Russell, “Halved Sonnets: A Diagram of Distances”
Chace Zachery Morris, “Hex as Language of The Unheard”
Sara Elkamel, “The Seamstress”
The 2023 Breakthrough Chapbook Contest
Guest Judged by: Kemi Alabi
2023 Winner
1st Place: Kathryn Hargett-Hsu, with "The Skin is a Warm Coat"
The 2023 Hurt & Healing Prize
Guest Judged by: Andrés Cerpa
2023 Winners
1st Place: Eliza Gilbert, with "My Father Postpones His Appearance on Wheel of Fortune While I'm in Rehab"
2nd Place: Geramee Hensley, with "Ode to My Family in the Key of Fried Chicken & Fried Rice"
3rd Place: Sara Elkamel, with "Saturday"
The 2022 Global Poetry Prize
2022 Winners
South Asia
1st Place: Igra Khan, with "Ars Poetica: Kohinoor (Mountain of Light)"
Africa
1st Place: Abigail Mengesha, with "Map"
Europe
1st Place: Carlose A. Pittella ,with "The death of Jean Charles de Menezes"
North America
1st Place: Javier Sandoval, with "Requiem for the Ungoverned"
The 2022 Nature & Place Prize
Guest Judged by: Amaud Johnson
2022 Winners
1st Place: Anna Newman, with “de arena & calce or: of sand & quicklime or: hydrangeas”
2nd Place: Dan Barton, with "River Eclogue: Narcissus & Echo at the Bridge"
3rd Place: Noel Quiñones, with"How to Color Mami"
The 2022 Frontier OPEN
2022 Winner of the $5000 Prize
1st Place: Yi Wei, with"Diction"
2022 Finalists
Amy Wang, "autumn homecomings"
Chelsea Dingman, "Mass (a reverse sestina)"
Georgio Russell, "Portrait of My Arrival as Grief"
Grace MacNair, "Trophic Level/Ode to a Roadkill Doe"
The 2022 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest
Guest Judged by: Tom Sleigh
2022 Honorable Mentions
Sera Gamble, Once Upon A Time We Never Washed Our Hands
Sean Cho A., Subjectivity Test
Meghan Dahn, Let Nest
2022 Finalists
Jasmine An, Counterpoint
Colin Bailes, Assemblage after the Wreck
Caleb Nichols, Soft Animal Oft Anima
Wylde Parsley, the anonym gospels
Trace DePass, Sonic Gnostics’
teri elam, Forever We
The 2022 New Voices Contest
Guest Judged by: José Olivarez
2022 Winners
1st Place: Donte Collins, with"Small and Personal"
2nd Place: Ae Hee Lee, with "Anything You Can Find in the World You Can Find in the Body"
3rd Place: Megan Kim, with "My Name Means Pearl—"
The 2021 Industry Prize
Guest Judged by: Jenny Molbery, director of Pleiades Press and Michael Wiegers of Copper Canyon Press
2021 Winners
1st Place: L Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, with “Don’t Look Back, Little Halo”
2nd Place:Michelle Peñaloza, with “I Tell My Mother I Don’t Think Trying To Get Pregnant During a Pandemic is Good Idea”
3rd Place: Anders Villani, with “Poison”
The 2021 Frontier Award for New Poets
2021 Winners
1st Place: Chibuihe Obi Achimba, with “a sonnet: a slaughter field”
2nd Place: Samual Piccone, with “Herma”
3rd Place: Emily Hyland, with “Ashes Arts and Crafts”
2021 Finalists
Christina Miles
Julia Anna Morrison
Kimberly Nguyen
Mag Gabbert
Maria Gregorio
Shannan Mann
Yvette Siegert
The 2021 Frontier OPEN
2021 Winner of the $5000 Prize
1st Place: Chaun Ballard, with "Fireworks"
2021 Finalists
Sneha Subramanian Kanta
Christiane Jacox
Kelly Weber
Emma De Lisle
Natalie Dunn
Kimberly Nguyen
Raphael Jenkins
Heidi Seaborn
Shaina Jones
The 2021 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest
Guest Judged by: Kazim Ali
2021 Winner
1st Place: Abby Johnson, with Opportunity Cost
2021 Finalists
Will Russo, Dreamsoak
Ari Gtz Scz, Weather Tomorrow
K.D. Harryman, Alprazoland
Matthew Gellman, Night Logic
Caroline Chavatel, Issuance
Shawn Hoo, Of the Florids
Andre Hoilette, Cothilda, a flamewoman
Jeff Whitney, Thirteen Stories
Simon Shieh, Every Scar is an Eye
The 2021 New Voices Contest
Guest Judge by: Donika Kelly
2021 Winners
1st Place: S. Kim, with "Assimilamentations"
2nd Place: A.D. Lauren-Abunassar, with “Abandoned Sestina”
3rd Place: Syd Westley, with “Interlocution”
2021 Finalists
Adedayo Agarau
Bola Opaleke
Erin McCoy
féi hernandez
Grace Wagner
Josephine Blair
Kate Arden
Stephanie Chang
The 2020 Frontier OPEN
2020 Winner
1st Place: Kayleb Rae Candrilli, with "A Marble Run for Another End-of-Days"
2020 Finalists
Kim Addonizio, "Cracked Logic"
Elizabeth Shvarts, "Queer American"
Itiola Jones, "Original Sin"
Taylor Byas, "An So You Want a Poem"
Taneum Bambrick, "Poem for Ellensburg"
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, "Letter to My Son"
Joshua Nguyen, "Hoarder"
Remi Recchia, "Walking with My Lover to Bury Our Dead Fish"
Sabrina San Miguel, "Teaching your Homegirl about the Root Chakra"
The 2020 Frontier Award for New Poets
Guest Judged by: Paige Lewis, Camonghne Felix, and Jake Skeets
2020 Winners
1st Place: Taylor Byas, with "South Side"
2nd Place: Samantha Samakande ,with "ON THE THING I CANNOT EXPLAIN TO MY HUSBAND"
3rd Place: Nome Emeka Patrick, with "The Body Walks Through Grief Toward God"
The 2020 Industry Prize
Guest Judged by: Carmen Giménez Smith, Daniel Slager, and Peter LaBerge
2020 Winners
1st Place: Michelle Phúóng Ting, with "The Long Afterlife"
2nd Place: Chaun Ballard, with "While I Walk, My Brother Assures My Nephew There Are Wildflowers Growing in Minneapolis"
3rd Place: Adedayo Agarau, with “Bad Dream with My Grandmother’s Stroke”
The 2020 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest
Guest Judged by: Carl Phillips
2020 Winner
1st Place: Frederick Speers, with In the Year of Our Making & Unmaking
2020 Finalists
Ajanae Dawkins, Heirs
Nicole A. Greaves, Conventicle
Erica Charis-Molling, How We Burn
Stephanie Yue Duhem, A Witch Named
Lupita Eyde-Tucker, How to Ride a Train in the Andes
Grace Wagner-ODaniel, Halcyon Days
J’Sun Howard, Black Effigy
Dujie Tahat, BALIKBAYAN
Noʻu Revilla, letters to the gut house
2020 Antioch-Fellowship Prize
2020 Winners
1st Place: Momtaza Mehri
2nd Place: Madeleine Cravens
3rd Place: Joanna Ng
The 2019 Frontier OPEN
2019 Winner
1st Place: JP Grasser with “A Brief History of Mercy”
2019 Finalists
Gail Entrekin
Xiao Yumi
Leyla Colpan
Jennifer Garfield
Jasmine Smith
C. Samuel Rees
Daniella Tootsie-Watson
Jed Myers
David Joez Villaverde
KT Herr
The 2019 Frontier Award for New Poets
Guest judges: Ocean Vuong, Kaveh Akbar, and Eve L. Ewing
2019 Winners
1st Place: Golden, with “[X][Y]:[X][X]”
2nd Place: Alan Semerdijan, with “THE NAMING”
3rd Place: Diamond Forde, with “Lot’s Wife”
The 2019 Industry Prize
Guest judges: Jeff Shotts—Executive Editor of Graywolf Press, Kwame Dawes—Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner, and Sarah Gambito—Co-founder of Kundiman
2019 Winners
1st Place: Elizabeth Oxley, with "After April Rain"
2nd Place: ae hee lee, with “Inheritance”
3rd Place: Olatunde Osinaike, with “Twelve”
The 2019 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest
Guest judged by: Jericho Brown
2019 Winners
1st Place: Naima Yael Tokunow, with Shadow Black
2nd Place: Ryan Jones, with in spite of years of silence
3rd Place: Jeff Whitney, with A Seven in Horses
2019 Antioch-Fellowship Prize
2019 Winner
1st Place: Cassie Garrison (read an interview about her experience at Antioch here)
2019 Finalists
Sarah Key
Genevieve Paiement
Esther Ra
Noel Quiñones
Leila Ortiz
William Evans
Fay Dillof
Trace Howard
DePass
Elisabet Velasquez
Mick Powell
Dujie Tahat
Kaja Lucas
David Joez Villaverde
2018 Frontier Open
2018 Winners
1st Place: Mark Wagenaar, with “Migrations”
2nd Place: Elizabeth Oxley, with “Expelling Venus”
3rd Place: Sam Zafris, with “Secret Hymn”
2018 Finalists
E.D. Watson
Jocelyn Williams
Korey Williams
Hillary Martin
K. Jagai
Oriana Ivy
2018 Frontier Award for New Poets
Guest judged by: Victoria Chang
2018 Winners
1st Place: Kirk Schlueter, with “The Anorexic’s Aubade”
2nd Place: Cara Waterfall, with “Heart postpartum”
3rd Place: Cynthia Manick, with “Self-Portrait No. 5 (Phoenix and Lullabies)”
2018 Finalists
Hannah King
Khaty Xiong
Jacob Nelson
Meghann Plunkett
Yaccaira Salvatierra
Monica Ong
Hilda Weiss
2018 Summer Poetry Award
2018 Winners
1st Place: Heather Treseler, with “Louisiana Requiem”
2nd Place: Leila Chatti, with “AFTER READING DJ KHALED...”
3rd Place: Aurora Masum-Javed, with “Singularity”
2018 Finalists
Shavahn Dorris-Jefferson
Ying-Ying Zhang
Marlin Figgins
Karl Iglesias
Zilka Joseph
Tokorima Taihuringa
Samuel Wright Fairbanks
2018 Industry Prize
Guest judged by: Don Share, Editor of Poetry; Nicole Sealey, Executive Director of Cave Canem; & Matthew Zapruder, Editor of Wave Books
2018 Winners
1st Place: Kristin Chang with, "Dress code for an immigration interview"
(tied) 2nd Place: Gabriel Kruis, with “Bosky Farm”
(tied) 2nd Place Place: Brian Tierney, with ”Polyphagia”
2018 Finalists
Elizabeth Herron
Madhur Anand
Jasmine Reid
Carlos Gomez
Deborah Fried-Rubin
Inam Kang
Jessica Hincapie
2018 Digital Chapbook Contest
2018 Winner
1st Place: Xiao Yue Shan, with “How Often I Have Chosen Love”
2018 Finalists
Catherine Strisik
Linette Reeman
Becky Boyle
Tanya Ko-Hong
Kristin Chang
Seema Yasmin
Nicole Stockburger
Simone Person
Seif-Eldeine Och
2017 Frontier Open
2017 Winners
1st Place: Tiana Clark, with “Tim”
2017 Finalists
Chad Oness
Rachel Jorgensen
Jessica Turney
Chaun Ballard
Amanda Hawkins
Bola Opaleke
Mason Henderson
Mackenzie Whitehead-Bust
Ebony Chinn
Regina Marie
2017 Frontier Award for New Poets
Guest judged by: Tyehimba Jess
2017 Winners
1st Place: Todd Smith with “Souvenir”
2nd Place: Kara Jackson with “Love poem with a knife”
3rd Place: Matty Layne Glasgow with “deciduous qween IV”
2017 Honorable Mentions
“Undone” by Brionne Janae
“the neighbor’s house” by Benjamin Hertwig
