From hundreds of poems, our editors selected ten finalists to be sent to the judge, Gloria Munoz. She had a difficult time choosing from this wonderful group, but ultimately selected these to single out:
First place: Jen Karetnick, “Too brief again, this August light”
Judge’s note on the first-place poem: “Mesmerizing and vivid, this poem will sink you to the ocean’s depths. A study of grief told in a weaving of close observations, ‘Too brief again, this August light’ uncovers images that awe and haunt.”
Second place: Tarn Wilson, “Wanted: Lighthouse Keeper”
Judge’s note on the second-place poem: “’Wanted: Lighthouse Keeper’ is the kind of classified ad that makes you reconsider your relationship to becoming. An ode to braving storms alone and, when needed, being a refuge for others.”
Third place/Editor’s choice: Susan L. Leary, “Dramatic Irony”
Finalists:
Amy Miller, “The Artist at Seventy-Five”
Arnisha Royston, “nesting”
Brittany Adames, “We Have Gotten So Good at Dying”
Daniel Edward Moore, “Fatal Hour”
Debmalya Bandyopadhyay, “Insomnia”
Diane LeBlanc, “B is for Bird”
Emily Patterson, “Uninhabited”
These poems will be published over the next few weeks on Sweetlit.org.
Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian American writer, translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy. She is the author of Your Biome Has Found You and Danzirly (University of Arizona Press, 2021), which won the Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal Florida Book Award. Her other honors include an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship, Hedgebrook Fellowship, being a Macondista, Highlights Foundation’s Diverse Verse Fellowship, Lumina’s Multilingual Writing Award, a Las Musas Mentorship, St. Pete Arts Alliance’s Muse Award, Creative Pinellas’ Artist Grant, and attending the Tin House YA writers workshop. Through Moonlit Música, the company she cofounded, Muñoz writes and composes music for bilingual children’s programming in audio, film, and curriculum. She is proud to be St. Pete’s first Latina poet laureate.
