In 2019, editor Elle Aviv Newton launched our poetry challenge. For nineteen weeks, we shared an image from recent news coverage and gave writers six days to submit an original poem inspired by the image. The winning works were selected for publication in the pages of Poets Reading the News and shared with thousands of readers via our newsletter and social media channels. Thank you to the many, many writers who participated in this ekphrastic project and the nineteen winning poems and their writers! We are not currently presenting new poetry challenges, so that we may focus on our many projects both within and outside Poets Reading the News. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on our latest projects, events and publications.

 

 

PAST WINNERS

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“What She’s Been Saying All Along” – Devon Balwit

“Window” – Erin Mizrahi

“Gulag” – Michael DeMaranville

“Precedent 45” -Rémy Dambron

“Whose Father” – Jane Yolen

“To the Blonde Jester” – Adam Davis

“The Span of a Year” – Taylor Balfour

“Incantation Against Burning Amazon Rainforests” – Stephen Scott Whitaker

“Not Wolf” – Danielle Mitchell

“Three Eulogies” – Monaye

“Moving Money: A Sermon” – Jane Yolen

“Gweilos” – The Poet Mj

“WE THE HOMOSEXUALS” – Robin Gow

“Death by the Numbers” – Mary Turck

“40 Acres and a Tool” – Mernine Ameris

“Ghosts in the Machine” – Chandra Steele

“Exclusion” – Emily Jo Scalzo

“Harvest” – Devon Balwit

“Masters of the Universe” – Alejandro Escudé

“A Day Made of Atoms Like Ours” – Jed Myers