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Unterberg Poetry Center

Discovery Poetry Contest

The Joan Leiman Jacobson Poetry Prizes

For over 60 years 92Y’s Discovery Contest has launched the careers of major poets like John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, Mark Strand, Larry Levis, Mary Jo Bang, Solmaz Sharif and Diana Khoi Nguyen, to name but a few.

The winners of this year's contest are Asa Drake, Luther Hughes, Ana Portnoy Brimmer and Daniella Toosie-Watson. Each one will receive a reading at 92Y in the Fall of 2020, a two-night stay at the Ace Hotel, publication in The Paris Review Daily and $500.

The runners-ups are Amrita Chakraborty, Katherine Indermaur, J. Estanislao Lopez and Jeremy Voigt.

This year’s preliminary judges were Timothy Donnelly and Diana Marie Delgado. Jericho Brown, Paisley Rekdal and Wendy Xu served as final judges.

This contest is endowed by Joan L. and Dr. Julius H. Jacobson, II.

Winners

Asa Drake

Asa Drake is a Filipina American writer and public services librarian in Central Florida …

Asa Drake

Asa Drake is a Filipina American writer and public services librarian in Central Florida. She holds an MFA in poetry from The New School and is the recipient of fellowships from Tin House and Idyllwild Arts. Her most recent work is published or forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Epiphany and Tupelo Quarterly.

Luther Hughes

Luther Hughes is from Seattle, author of the chapbook Touched, founder of Shade Literary Arts and executive editor for The Offing …

Luther Hughes

Luther Hughes is from Seattle, author of the chapbook Touched, founder of Shade Literary Arts and executive editor for The Offing. Along with Gabrielle Bates and Dujie Tahat, he co-hosts The Poet Salon podcast. He has been featured in Poetry, Forbes and The Rumpus, among others. Luther received his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Ana Portnoy Brimmer

Ana Portnoy Brimmer is a Puerto Rican poet-performer, writer and organizer …

Ana Portnoy Brimmer

Ana Portnoy Brimmer is a Puerto Rican poet-performer, writer and organizer. She is an alumna of Rutgers University-Newark’s MFA in Creative Writing. Her chapbook, To Love An Island, is the winner of YesYes Books’ 2019 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest; her debut full-length collection is forthcoming with YesYes Books in the Spring 2021. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Winter Tangerine, Gulf Coast, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatinNEXT, and Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm.

Daniella Toosie-Watson

Daniella Toosie-Watson is a poet, visual artist and educator from New York …

Daniella Toosie-Watson

Daniella Toosie-Watson is a poet, visual artist and educator from New York. She has received fellowships and awards from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, the InsideOut Detroit Literary Arts Project, The Watering Hole and the University of Michigan Hopwood Program. Her poetry has appeared in Callaloo, Virginia Quarterly Review, SLICE and The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4: LatiNext. Daniella received her MFA from the University of Michigan Helen Zell Writers' Program.

Preliminary Judges

Timothy Donnelly

Timothy Donnelly is the author of Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit …

Timothy Donnelly

Timothy Donnelly is the author of Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit; The Cloud Corporation, for which he won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and The Problem of Many.

Diana Marie Delgado

Diana Marie Delgado is the author of Tracing the Horse and the chapbook Late Night Talks with Men I Think I Trust …

Diana Marie Delgado

Diana Marie Delgado is the author of Tracing the Horse and the chapbook Late Night Talks with Men I Think I Trust. She is the recipient of numerous grants, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Final Judges

Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown is the author of Please, which received the 2009 American Book Award …

Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown is the author of Please, which received the 2009 American Book Award; The New Testament, which received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and The Tradition. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University.

Paisley Rekdal

Paisley Rekdal is the author of Animal Eye, a finalist for the 2013 Kingsley Tufts Prize and winner of the UNT Rilke Prize …

Paisley Rekdal

Paisley Rekdal is the author of Animal Eye, a finalist for the 2013 Kingsley Tufts Prize and winner of the UNT Rilke Prize; Imaginary Vessels, a finalist for the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Prize and the Washington State Book Award; and Nightingale, among others. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy of American Poets. She is Utah’s Poet Laureate.

Wendy Xu

Born in Shandong, China, poet Wendy Xu is the author of You Are Not Dead and Phrasis, winner of the Ottoline Prize …

Wendy Xu

Born in Shandong, China, poet Wendy Xu is the author of You Are Not Dead and Phrasis, winner of the Ottoline Prize. In 2014 she was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.

Semi-Finalists

Leslie Marie Aguilar
Allison Albino
Nadia Alexis
Fullamusu Bangura
Jeanette Beebe
Nicole Burney
Sasha Burshteyn
Ama Codjoe
Alisha Dietzman
Jacob Eigen
Lupita Eyde-Tucker
Charlene Francois
JP Grasser
K. Avvirin Gray
Paula Harris
W.J. Herbert
Jose Hernandez Diaz
KT Herr
Sakinah Hofler
Marcus Jamison
Daniel Kraft
Daschielle Louis
Lisa Low
Eduardo Martinez
Kristina Martino
Derick Mattern
Victoria Lynne McCoy
Vaughan Meyer
Joshua Nguyen
C. L. O’Dell
Alexa Patrick
Robyn Maree Pickens
Emily Pittinos
Monica Rico
Phil SaintDenisSanchez
Suzi Smith
Lolita Stewart-White
Samuel Ugbechie
Laura Villareal
Arriel Vinson
Dāshaun Washington
Kelly Weber

Please note that all 92Y regularly scheduled in-person programs are suspended.