Our 2025 Prose Poetry Competition was adjudicated by Ingrid Jendrzejewski whose Judge’s Report appears below. The winning poems appear in Issue 35: Passage.
The 2025 results are:
First Place
- Sisterhood by Yashasvi Vachhani
Second Place
- Playback by Susan Eyre Coppock
Third Place
- Exercises in Iconography by Oz Hardwick
Honourable Mention
- Marsh by Katy Z. Allen
Shortlist and Longlist
- The titles of shortlisted poems can be found here.
- The titles of longlisted poems can be found here.
Judge’s Report
This year has gone from tough to tougher for me personally and for the whole the team at The Prose Poem. But the more curveballs life throws in our paths, the more it feels crucial to keep returning to poetry. Art sustains. It’s a throughline.
With a lot going on, I was much slower than I’d hoped to be in making a final call, and I want to thank all the authors who submitted their work for their patience. I read everything slowly, in small batches, and I reread over and over again, really settling in to each poem. The four poems I selected here and the shortlisted poems that will be featured in The Prose Poem in future issues continue to bring me something new with each visit.
Thank you to all the authors who submitted work, and huge congratulations to the authors of this year’s winning poems.
First Place: Sisterhood
I love how quickly this poem snaps a scene into focus and then lets it expand into something communal. The colour work is instantly cinematic, and then we move into a moment that is both private and communal at the same time. The poem earns its “we”: the train turns into a chorus, a protective ring, the wings of a stage, stocked with the essentials. The poem magically holds tenderness and swagger together without strain. The final image is gentle, funny and deeply touching at the same time, tipping its hat to the bravado and vulnerability of both the poem’s observers and observed.
Second Place: Playback
This poem has the snap of a great opening and the satisfying click of a metaphor that keeps deepening as you read—and then Aunt Girt arrives with a voice that feels like the perfect contrast: blunt, loving, unsentimental. I love how the poem trusts small physical details to do so much work. It’s a deliciously compact piece, with oh-so-expansive nuance and resonance.
Third Place: Exercises in Iconography
I love poems that turn landscape into psyche, and this one does just that with such assurance and grace. From the very first images, the world feels slightly unlatched, and the poem keeps layering realities, taking us on a journey that feels both literal and existential. The sense of the uncanny is wonderfully controlled, and I love the sly humour threaded throughout. The poem’s images keep intensifying without losing clarity, and the bold, enigmatic ending leaves the reader perfectly poised at the edge of revelation.
Honourable Mention: Marsh
This poem’s form is part of its meaning, and I really admire its commitment to that long, unbroken breath. The absence of punctuation creates a steady, trudging, almost hypnotic movement—perfect for a piece that begins in late-winter stasis and mud, and that asks us to sit for a moment with what isn’t ‘enticing or beautiful’ yet. I love the specificity of the ecology in this poem, and the ending feels like a benediction for patience, with the repeated ‘most certainly’ becoming its own kind of comfort.
Again, thank you to all the poets who gave me the opportunity to spend time with your work. I found something to admire in every poem submitted and it has been an true privilege to spend time with your words.
— Ingrid Jendrzejewski, December 2025