2022 Emerging Poet Prize: Winners & Finalists
We are delighted to share the winners, finalists, and longlist for the 2022 Emerging Poet Prize! Please help us congratulate these up and coming poets. Deep gratitude to all who shared moving poems with us—we are so lucky to have been immersed in the worlds of your work. The winning poems were selected by Safia Elhillo and will be published next week.
Winners of the 2022 Emerging Poet Prize
1st place — Grace MacNair for “Theodicy”
Grace MacNair is a poet and healthcare professional living in Brooklyn, NY. She has received support from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, Brooklyn Poets, Hunter College, and Monson Arts Residency and Fellowship. She was selected by Yona Harvey as the winner of Radar Poetry’s 2021 Coniston Prize. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, Radar Poetry, Palette Poetry, and elsewhere.
2nd place — Liala Zaray for “CNN’s correspondent thinks afghani means Afghan”
Liala Zaray is a Pushcart prize nominated MFA candidate at St. Mary’s College. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Tinderbox, Smartish Pace, Orion & The Journal. You can find her on Twitter through the username @liala_af.
3rd place — Gabriel Cortez for “I just wanted to see what it would do when I say—”
Gabriel Cortez is a Black biracial poet, educator, and organizer of Panamanian descent. His work has appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, and The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4. He is a VONA fellow, #BARS workshop alum, NALAC grant recipient, and winner of the Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize. Gabriel is a member of the artist collective Ghostlines, and co-founder of The Root Slam, an award-winning poetry venue dedicated to inclusivity, justice, and artistic growth, as well as Write Home, a project working to challenge public perceptions of houselessness and shift critical resources to houseless Bay Area youth through spoken word poetry. Gabriel works as Director of Programs at Youth Speaks, one of the world’s leading presenters of spoken word performance, education, and youth development programs.
Finalists
Arwa Alsamarae
Nina Boals
Micah Dela Cueva
Monica Romo
Noel Quiñones
Sara Rivera
Winniebell Xinyu Zong
Longlist
Rabih Ahmed
Melissa Anderson
Gauri Awasthi
Rachel Betesh
Alecia Beymer
Claire Champommier
Zachariah Claypole White
Autumn Cooper
Imani Davis
Lexi De Primo
Rebecca Faulkner
Julie Feng
Natalia Figueroa Barroso
Amber Flame
Frida Garcia-Berriochoa
Jeanne Genis
Courtney Huse Wika
Obasiota Ibe
Gabriela Igloria
Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose
Laura Joyce-Hubbard
Megan KIco Kellner
Molly Lanzarotta
Ibe Liebenberg
Maja Lukic
Laila Malik
Carling McManus
Aparna Mitra
Kimberly Nguyen
kiki nicole
Theta Pavis
Carlos A. Pittella
McKenna Ritter
Salwa Sadek
Rome Smaoui
Eden Julia Sugay
D’Mani Thomas
Othuke Umukoro
Sarah Warren
Jamie Wendt
Samuel Wood