We are delighted to announce the winners, runners-up, and finalists for our fifth annual contests in poetry and prose.

In prose, judge Jamil Jan Kochai has selected “Kennel Training” by Iris Yu as winner and “Vagabond Cain” by Sophie Hoss as runner-up. They will receive $1000 and $500 respectively, and their stories will be featured in Issue 114 of Quarterly West.

In poetry, judge V. Penelope Pelizzon has selected “Invocation” by Marie Scarles as winner and "Batter my heart" by T R Poulson as runner-up. They will receive $1000 and $500 respectively, and their poems will be featured in Issue 114 of Quarterly West. Additionally, “Confirmation” by Irena Datcu-Romano and “Passing” by Othuke Umukoro were selected as honorable mentions.

Jamil Jan Kochai on Iris Yu’s “Kennel Training”:

“Teetering between sci fi and surrealism, "Kennel Training" is a strange and strangely moving story of a man resurrected into a pet. All throughout its narrative, you find yourself questioning the very nature of the story itself, but you never stop believing in the writing for a second. An impressive achievement." 

Jamil Jan Kochai on Sophie Hoss’s “Vagabond Cain”:

"Our whiskey drinking, church owning, organ playing, sister neglecting narrator traverses grief and child care with dark humor and a deft eye. The voice is, by turns, clever, ironic, astute, vulgar, and heartbreakingly honest."

V. Penelope Pelizzon on Marie Scarles’s “Invocation”:

"This poem is a master-class in long-line free verse rhythms and enjambments. As the title promises, the reader is swept into the energy of invoking, calling down the domestic gods and familial beloveds. Within the sweeping lines, the imagery moves me wonderfully to the memorable specificity of the “2 o’clock nap/& peppercorns” and the “faces of the saints, printed, laminated, & pinned into our sweaters.” This poem demands that I read it aloud to savor its syntactical accretions. It surges forward and strategically pauses, naming and pulling its missing loved ones into presence through the vehicle of breath."

V. Penelope Pelizzon on T R Poulson’s “Batter my heart”:

"Can a sonnet really still surprise readers in 2025? Especially one wearing its Donnean heart so openly on its sleeve and in its rhymes? I admit I was dubious as my eye fell on this poem’s title and epigraph. But on repeated readings, I was struck afresh at how wittily this poet turns Donne’s erotic devotions into a devotional break-up elegy. You can only get away with such seventeenth-century homage if you bake it into an absolutely fresh cake, as with the vanilla batter that opens this poem’s heady sensory catalogue. Being playful is sometimes the fiercest way to be serious, as this poet knows when they ask the vanishing beloved to “salad me with green” and “enemy/my empty.” And that spin in the closing line! If this were just wit, it might feel slight, but I sense the real piercing of that final rebuff. Donne’s Holy Ghost would be woo’d; the ghosting lover of this poem, as the poet makes clear, will not. Batter our hearts, indeed."

V. Penelope Pelizzon on Irena Datcu-Romano’s “Confirmation”:

"This pantoum is so impressive in its understatement, in the layers of passionate intensity it generates through the subtlety of its repetitions. Pantoums can do too much telling, the refrain lines dragging down the narrative energy. Not so in this poem. This poet leaves us  with the mystery and heat of erotic attraction, the “one step forward, one step back” of a genuine revelation."

V. Penelope Pelizzon on Othuke Umukoro’s “Passing”:

"The sensibility and pathos of this poem stayed with me in the week after I read the entries for the first time. “The rabbits here are built like 40-year-old toddlers”—what a line!! It’s  enviable in its quirky specificity, and I want to steal some of the brilliant weird precision of this poet’s eye. Meanwhile, the understated punch of “For every poem, there is a poem/with a coin in its mouth” works wonderfully in context. I want to read more by this author."

We’d also like to congratulate all of our finalists for their inspiring work.

Prose Finalists:

Julia Juster

Marasha Love

Poetry Finalists:

Audrey Hall

David Ehmcke

Meghan Malachi

Acie Clark

Bo Hee Moon

Maddie Barone

We are delighted to announce the winners, runners-up, and finalists for our fourth annual contests in poetry and prose.

In prose, judge Thalia Field has selected “Witnesses” by Tobenna Nwosu as winner and “Revelations” by Mason Koa as runner-up. They will receive $500 and $200 respectively, and their stories will be featured in Issue 111 of Quarterly West.

Thalia Field on Tobenna Nwosu’s “Witnesses”:

“This is a mysterious and evocative piece that doesn’t neglect the poetic language of storytelling, and is satisfying in a very subtle and moving way. The world of the story is enchanting and dark, and moves between the layers of fantasy and reality. A wonderful and enjoyable read.”

Thalia Field on Mason Koa’s “Revelations”:

“This wonderful, tense, and complete short fiction uses dramatic tropes to circle a bit of a heartbreaking story that is also poignant and amusing. I liked how the author kept the mystery at the heart of the piece intact while also providing a satisfying shape.”

In poetry, judge Eduardo C. Corral has selected Tyler Wagner’s “Endless Savings” as winner and recipient of a $500 prize. Corral selected Mitchell Jacobs’ “Jesus Watches Me Get My Ass Swabbed” as runner-up and recipient of a $200 prize. Their poems will be featured in Issue 111 of Quarterly West.

Eduardo C. Corral on Tyler Wagner’s “Endless Savings”:

“This poem is deftly written. The lines cascade down the page, immersing the reader in loss, a shifting landscape (another kind of loss), and the speaker’s resolve, which takes a surprising turn at the end. The language is resonant, sorrowful: ‘The end, / an alternating / current’ and ‘Anything you/ could want. / Anything / to keep / you here.’ The poem takes a risk by conflating the seemingly endlessness of big box stores with endless human yearning. And it pays off memorably.”

Eduardo C. Corral on Mitchell Jacobs’ “Jesus Watches Me Get My Ass Swabbed”

“The speaker in this marvelous poem is under surveillance by multiple gazes. The surveillance is clinical, religious, and historical. The speaker disrupts the judgmental gazes by using humor and by reframing religious narratives. These strategies energize the language and shape a memorable speaker who both interrogates and rejects what is being experienced.”

We’d also like to congratulate all of our finalists for their inspiring work.

Prose Finalists:

Modupe Abidakun

Gabriella Navas

Claire Walla

Poetry Finalists:

O-Jeremiah Agbaakin

Carrie Chappell

Jessica Guzman

Dabin Jeong

Christopher Brean Murray

Tim Richardson

Natalie Tombasco

We are delighted to announce the winners, runners-up, and finalists for our third annual contests in poetry and prose.

In prose, judge Amina Cain has selected “Fracas Street” by Theresa Sylvester as winner and “If You Can Never Love It Enough” by Hannah Ensor as runner-up. They will receive $500 and $200 respectively, and their stories will be featured in Issue 108 of Quarterly West. Additionally, Cain named “How To Catch Cherry Blossoms” by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu as Honorable Mention.

Amina Cain on Theresa Sylvester’s “Fracas Street”:

“I chose this story for its aura of unreality, its great sense of fullness within concision, its originality, and its vibrancy. The sisters of ‘Fracas Street’ are ghostly and intriguing as is the world they conjure between them.”

Amina Cain on Hannah Ensor’s “If You Can Never Love It Enough”:

“I chose this piece for its satisfying narrative voice and structure, its sense of expansiveness, not unlike the desert landscape in which it takes place, and its movement. ‘If You Can Never Love It Enough’ is witty and wise and I like the questions it asks about writing.”

Amina Cain on Ani Kayode Somtochukwu’s “How To Catch Cherry Blossoms”:

“I like the way in which ‘How to Catch Cherry Blossoms’ is both direct and dreamy. I was moved by it, caught up in its emotion and sensibility.”

In poetry, judge Sally Wen Mao has selected Hera Naguib’s “The Expulsion” as winner and recipient of a $500 prize. Wen Mao selected Alexa Luborsky’s “Slaughtering a Calf, I Think of Nothing But Myself” as runner-up and recipient of a $200 prize. Their poems will be featured in Issue 108 of Quarterly West.

Sally Wen Mao on Hera Naguib’s “The Expulsion”:

“‘The Expulsion’ is a poem that's hard to forget: a haunting, incantatory, and sonically lush portrait of a father who is ‘like the sea, an expatriate/that moves behooved despite/the country’s covert disposals.’ The language in this poem swells with sounds, full of reverberation and exilic ambivalence, reverence.”

Sally Wen Mao on Alexa Luborsky’s “Slaughtering a Calf, I Think of Nothing But Myself”

“‘Slaughtering a Calf’ is a sinuous and dexterously-made poem—a box full of ghosts, as text, metatext, subtext. Captivating, elegiac, and intricate, this poem cascades through its many forms and layers.”

We’d also like to congratulate all of our finalists for their inspiring work.

Prose Finalists:

Candace Hartsuyker

Sneha Subramanian Kanta

Ann Keeling

Max Kruger-Dull

Kimberly Ramos

Mariah Rigg

Heather Whited

Poetry Finalists:

Faiz Ahmad

Austin Araujo

Katie DeLay

Mackenzie Schubert Polonyi Donnelly

Rosa Lane

Christina Tang-Bernas

Anna Tomlinson

Maria Zoccola

Poetry, selected by Douglas Kearney

Winner: Onyekachi Iloh’s “It Is Once Again The Season of Corn”

Runner-up: Nora Claire Miller’s “In the Far Present”

Finalists:

Ryan Bollenbach 

Sarah Elkins 

Sarah Ghazal Ali 

Mrinalini Harchandrai 

Suzanne Langlois

O. Neace 

Julie Marie Wade 

Prose, selected by Cristina Rivera Garza

Winner: Su-Yee Lin’s “Some Humanity Still”

Runner-up: Shih-Li Kow’s “Old Enough For This”

Finalists:

Lindsey Clark

Enzo Kohara Franca 

Daniel Garcia 

Brandon Hansen

Dani Putney

Colleen Rothman

Poetry, selected by Natalie Scenters-Zapico

Winner: Kanika Ahuja’s “What Comes From Nothing”

Runner-up: Erika Goodrich’s “Not Even God’s Mercy”

Finalists:

Megan Alyse 

Gustavo Barahona-López

Jacquelyn Bengfort

C.S. Carrier

Rebecca Foust

torrin a. greathouse

Willie Lin 

Aaron Magloire 

Nome Emeka Patrick

Nnadi Samuel 

Callie Smith

Prose, selected by Peter Markus

Winner: Jakob Konger’s "One Long Sentence"

Runner-up: Nath Oddson’s “Log of Man Moths”

Finalists:

Linette Marie Allen

Thomas Dai

Taylor McGill

Kara McMullen

Corbin Muck