2025-26 Rejected Poetry Prize: Winners & Finalists
We are delighted to share the winners, finalists, and longlist for the 2025-26 Rejected Poetry Prize! Please join us in congratulating these wonderful poets. We’re deeply grateful to all who shared moving poems with us—we are so lucky to have been immersed in the worlds of your work! The winning poem and runner-ups were selected by guest judge Mai Der Vang and are published on the Palette website.
Winners of the 2025-26 Rejected Poetry Prize
1st place — Eva Mary Hooker for “Aubade”
In her first book, Godwit, Eva traced the migration patterns of a bird, collected wildflowers for semblances and rooted around in the testimony of women mystics. Two chapbooks, Notes for Survival in the Wilderness and The Winter Keeper were published by Chapiteau Press. Her poems have been published in journals such as Agni, Notre Dame Review, Salmagundi, and Terrain. Eva’s poetry has been deeply affected by summers spent on Madeline Island in Lake Superior. She is Professor of English Emerita and Writer-in-Residence at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana.
2nd place — Ariadna Maksin for “Cherry-Tipped Triptych”
Ariadna (Arina) Maksin is a poet and neurobiology researcher. The founding editor of Stemlit Review and an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers Studio, her work is published or forthcoming in Scapegoat Review, Eunoia Review, and Taipei Poetry Collective, among others. She splits her life between the West and East Coast, and her time dissecting either diction or brains.
3rd place — Ashley Varela for “Wave”
Ashley Varela (they/them) is a queer writer based in Seattle, Washington.
Finalists
Laura Apol
Hayley Burgess
Kawita Kandpal
Chloe Leisure
Andi Myles
Indrani Perera
Joyce Schmid
Longlist
Kelli Russell Agodon
Kaitlyn Airy
Nina Boals
John Carpentier
Shiowei Cheng
Stephanie Choi
Britny Cordera
Renee Ehle
Steve Evans
Gabriella Garcia
Amelia Hamerlynck
Jean Harper
Niamh Hollis-Locke
Nicole Johnson
Sylwia Kłus
Yana Ludwig
Ted Mico
michele miller
J. Alan Nelson
Weijia Pan
John Pring
Serena Rodriguez
Susan Mason Scott
Varun Shetty
Ide Thompson
Sara Verstynen
Jennifer D. Villegas