Hypotenuse
By Len Lawson
“The eyes of injustice strike deep as a bullet. The eyes of a revolutionary strike deeper through eternity.”
Blog
A
“A is antecedent, anterior, the abscess from which all else / arises. The atrocity in the attic, but also the attic’s architecture.”
The Gallery of America
By Katie Hale
“There was ugliness, too, in the gallery, though the audioguide / steered me meticulously away.”
Winners & Finalists for the 2021 Palette Poetry Prize
We are honored to share with everyone the winners and finalists of the 2021 Palette Poetry Prize! Please join us in congratulating these remarkable poets. Winners were selected by Jericho Brown.
Year of the Gilded Pig
By April Lim
“Hands pulsing, demands I eat / myself golden, the gentlest curves of mango, / she still carves me.”
Knee Length #5
By Khalisa Rae
In Knee-Length, poet and journalist Khalisa Rae navigates the nuances of an inherited conservative legacy. Pulling from memories of her religious upbringing and education, family history, and matrilineal teachings, Knee Length is a history reimagined and excavated—a rebellious relearning of desire and respectability, family and faith.
A Road
By Jeff Ewing
“That along / the way we acquire and shed companions. That the sky / goes black at night and lights again in the morning–“
I Refuse to Write a Poem About Body
By Nora Hikari
“I refuse to strike matches against my body, / I refuse to match my body against the years / it is owed”
Poem with Locked Box
“And to think these are our success stories: / the invention of violence / our people’s greatest innovation.”