Our 2024 Prose Poetry Competition was adjudicated by Ingrid Jendrzejewski. The winning poems were published in Issue 23.
Results
1st Place: Something of Fleas by May Cannon
2nd Place: Peacocks by Lee Stockdale
3rd Place: Red Hot Chili Sun by Kathrine Bancroft
Honourable Mention: Heirlooms by Rekha Mehra
Honourable Mention: May, week 1 by LeeAnn Pickrell
Honourable Mention: Re-learning How to Swim Breast-Stroke by Hannah Linden
Judge’s Report
Little did I know when I judged The Prose Poem’s inaugural poetry competition last year that I’d find myself pulled deeper and deeper into this project…first offering a bit of tech help, then providing a bit of cover, and now serving officially as Managing Editor. It’s been quite the journey, which I really came to appreciate when reading for The Prose Poem’s Second Annual Prose Poetry Competition.
Whereas last year the journal was just getting started, this year, the publication of the competition winners marks the journal’s one-year publication anniversary. Any fears of there not being enough interest to sustain a journal with a prose poetry focus have been decidedly laid to rest; the overall quantity and quality of submissions continues to increase, readership is growing, and we’re starting to see some of our authors return to us – a lovely indication that we’re doing something right.
I especially felt this difference when approaching the poems submitted for this competition. I read every single piece and even coming up with a longlist was a challenge, let alone whittling it down to a shortlist and then a final list of prize-winners. I found so much to admire in the submission pool this year, and I’m delighted that so many will be published here in future issues.
Choosing winners felt like a near impossible task. In the end, I had to go with my gut. I read the poems over and over during the longlisting and shortlisting phase, and then I ended up putting everything aside for a week. I did my best not to think about any of them, and then at the end of the week, I made a list of what I remembered most vividly…what stuck with me the most. The result surprised me; it diverged from the preliminary lists I’d made. I ended up using both to come up with my final ordering, but it’s worth saying explicitly: there are so many worthy poems, and at a different time or with a different judge, the results would likely be quite different.
1st Place: Something of Fleas
It’s hard to talk about this piece without spoiling the first read, but suffice it to say, this piece took me journey and delivered more and more with each new reading. The intricate, precise, sometimes somewhat formal language slowed me right down, making me read carefully and conscientiously in a way that both drew me in and distanced me from these characters at the same time. Being on the outside looking in made me feel the characters’ closeness and understand this understanding they share all the more. I love how it mixes the macro with the micro, politics with the personal, and formality with intimacy.
2nd Place: Peacocks
As I was getting to know this poem, my interest was piqued by its historical context – one I didn’t know about before – and the shift in the second paragraph to a moment that takes us out of the realm of the expected. The way the peacock chooses to express itself, and the sister peacock reinforcement that appears at the end are perfectly timed and exquisitely rendered. This poem won’t let go of me. When I’m minding my own business trying to go about my day, my thoughts keep getting interrupted by these peacocks and their screams.
3rd Place: Red Hot Chili Sun
This poem is a triumph of voice and storytelling. We focus in on a short moment in the narrator’s life, but in just a single paragraph, time expands both forwards and back and were given just enough pieces to the puzzle to get an understanding of the full picture. The ending is deftly depicted and pitch-perfect.
Honourable Mention: May, week 1
I love the observational detail in this piece and the way the rhythm and dance in the lines do just as much to convey the music of this piece as the meaning of the words. This poem is refreshingly alive….
Honourable Mention: Re-learning How to Swim Breast-Stroke
On the surface, this is a simple piece about a parent watching a child learn to swim, but the more I read, the more I found in its depths…everything from an exploration of the challenges of letting go as a parent to a treatise on how to live in difficult times.
Honourable Mention: Heirlooms
With its shape and lack of end punctuation, this poem made me interrogate the liminal space between prose poetry and non-prose poetry. Its imagery and sensory detail pulled me right into the poem’s story and the narrator’s emotional landscape.
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It has been an honour and privilege to read the entries for The Prose Poem’s inaugural prose poetry competition. Thank you again to everyone who submitted work; it is truly an honour and privilege to spend time with your poems. I genuinely found something to admire in every poem I read.
— Ingrid Jendrzejewski, November 2024