Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize Winners!

Thank you to every one of you who submitted your work for this year’s Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize. Passages North received over 180 submissions to the contest this year, and we had quite a difficult time narrowing our choices down. We’re pleased to announce our winners, selected by Ocean Vuong.

Winner: Emari DiGiorgio’s “A Guide for Souvenirs You Get Without Going on the Trip”

On the winning poem, Ocean Vuong writes: "This poem moves with fierce and restless ambitions to rupture itself towards linguistic and imagistic possibilities. But in doing so, it also sutures the syntax of a lived life, fleshed in 'tight-assed boys from Sioux City,' and 'dog tags clacking.' It's at once an homage and a testement to place, memory, and the power and vulnerability of not turning away. I love its spirit. Which is to say, I love this poet's spirit."

Honorable Mention: Keith S. Wilson’s “A Short List of Grievances”

Finalists

Leila Chatti, “Explaining the Attempt to the Doctors, Beginning with Two Lines From Darwish”

torrin greathouse, “On Discovering my Gag Reflex, an Absence” and “Self-portrait as Medical Model of Disability”

Samuel Piccone, “Desert Pass”

Osel Jessica Plante, “Weightless”

Brandon Rushton, “Public Works”

Danielle Zaccagnino, “A Brief History of Infatuation”

All contest entrants will receive Issue 39 of Passages North, which will include the winning and honorable mention poems, due out next winter.