We are thrilled to announce the winners and finalists of the 2025 Sweet Poetry Contest. Nine
finalists (one potential finalist had been withdrawn) were selected from a strong pool by poetry
co-editors Robert Annis and Ryan Cheng. Final judge Katie Riegel chose three prizewinners
from the finalist poems. All reading and judging maintained anonymity of submitters. The
special contest issue will go live on June 17.
First place: “Ricocheted into Our Better Selves” by Heather Jessen
Judge’s note: I’m delighted with the ways language helps us see the world afresh in this
poem—“all long-legged maybe,” “the growl of pickups idling,” “all we wildlife”—as well as the
consonance and assonance that ground us in the physical through the pleasure of sound. But it’s
the exploration of what this viral moment could mean that sticks in my mind, the insistence that
experience does mean something, even if it’s experience via the screen. And I’m always a sucker
for a powerful ending, like this one, which reminds us of the human-created and human-
threatening dangers that make this moment of grace so vital.
Second place: “Abecedarian: Whatever Grows” by Ashley Kirkland
Judge’s note: This poem digs into “the beautiful and terrible and surprising / forms love can
take” with the kind of authentic and telling details we need to glimpse understanding ourselves.
Aunt B. has a cigarette and beer in the wedding photos, important life moments take place in the
Boy Scout parking lot. The form is so deftly used that I barely noticed it, yet it provides a frame
on which to hang the joys and sorrows of multi-generational family.
Third place: “Scientists Confirm Ocean Is Really Scary at Night” by Jill McCabe Johnson
Judge’s note: Who could resist a poem with a humorous title like this, that goes on to explore
death and our feelings about it with insight and musicality?
Finalists
“Body” by Katey Funderburgh
“When Everyone Is Sick and I Think of My Mother” by Nancy Huggett
“Convenience” by Jen Rouse
“I Begin with Noise, End with an Accent” by Nnadi Samuel
“Granddaughter” by Susan Mason Scott
“Girl, Mapped in Florida” by Maggie Wolff
Judge’s bio: Katherine Riegel’s lyric memoir, Our Bodies Are Mostly Water, is out from Cornerstone Press as of May 2025. Other books include Love Songs from the End of the World and the chapbook Letters to Colin Firth. Her work has appeared in Brevity, Catamaran, Orion, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Co-founder and managing editor of Sweet Lit, she teaches online classes in poetry and cnf.
