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Discovery/Boston Review 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, Mary Jo Bang and Solmaz Sharif, to name but a few.

The winners of this year’s contest are Heidi Johannesen Poon, Jake Skeets, Monica Sok and Paul Tran. Each one receives a reading at 92Y, publication in Boston Review, a two-night stay at the Ace Hotel and $500.
 
The runners-up are Alfredo Aguilar, Jameson Fitzpatrick and Joe Gutierrez.
 
This year’s preliminary judges were Timothy Donnelly and A. H. Jerriod Avant. Craig Santos Perez, Srikanth Reddy and Dara Wier served as final judges.


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

Winners

Monica Sok

Monica Sok’s chapbook is Year Zero, for which she won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship.

Monica Sok

Monica Sok’s chapbook is Year Zero, for which she won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. She has been awarded fellowships from Kundiman, NEA, and most recently a 2018-2020 Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University.

Jake Skeets

Jake Skeets is Black Streaked Wood, born for Water’s Edge. He is Diné from the Navajo Nation.

Jake Skeets

Jake Skeets is Black Streaked Wood, born for Water’s Edge. He is Diné from the Navajo Nation. His work has appeared in Word Riot, Connotation Press, The Blueshift Journal, and elsewhere. He is the founding editor of Cloudthroat, a journal dedicated to Native, First Nations, and Indigenous writing and art.

Heidi Johannesen Poon

Heidi Johannesen Poon’s chapbook is The Good News of the Ground, for which she won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship.

Heidi Johannesen Poon

Heidi Johannesen Poon’s chapbook is The Good News of the Ground, for which she won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. She has received fellowships from Brown University and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, among others.

Paul Tran

Paul Tran is Poetry Editor at The Offing and Chancellor's Graduate Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.

Paul Tran

Paul Tran is Poetry Editor at The Offing and Chancellor's Graduate Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. Their work appears in The New Yorker, POETRY, and elsewhere. They are the first Asian American since 1993 and first transgender poet to win the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam.

Preliminary Judges

Timothy Donnelly

Timothy Donnelly is the poetry editor at Boston Review and author of Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit and The Cloud Corporation, for which he won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

Timothy Donnelly

Timothy Donnelly is the poetry editor at Boston Review and author of Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit and The Cloud Corporation, for which he won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

A. H. Jerriod Avant

A. H. Jerriod Avant served as Writer in the Public Schools Fellow at New York University.

A. H. Jerriod Avant

A. H. Jerriod Avant served as Writer in the Public Schools Fellow at New York University. He is the recipient of the Joseph F. McCrindle Online Editorial Fellowship from Poets & Writers, a 2015 Vermont Studio Center residency and two fellowships from the FINE ARTS WORK CENTER in Provincetown.

Final Judges

Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez is the author of from unincorporated territory [guma’], from unincorporated territory [hacha] and from unincorporated territory [saina], the latter of which was a finalist for the LA Times 2010 Book Prize for Poetry and the winner of the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry.

Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez is the author of from unincorporated territory [guma’], from unincorporated territory [hacha] and from unincorporated territory [saina], the latter of which was a finalist for the LA Times 2010 Book Prize for Poetry and the winner of the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry.

Srikanth Reddy

Srikanth Reddy is the author of Facts for Visitors and Voyager, named one of the best books of poetry by The New Yorker, NPR and The Believer.

Srikanth Reddy

Srikanth Reddy is the author of Facts for Visitors and Voyager, named one of the best books of poetry by The New Yorker, NPR and The Believer.

Dara Wier

Dara Wier is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including In the Still of the Night, You Good Thing and Selected Poems.

Dara Wier

Dara Wier is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including In the Still of the Night, You Good Thing and Selected Poems. Her poetry has been supported by fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the American Poetry Review.

Semi-Finalists

Kaveh Bassiri
S. Erin Batiste
Bryan Beck
Joe Betz
Dylan Carpenter
Katie Condon
Rio Cortez
Jessica Crisler
Ryan Dzelzkalns
Camonghne Felix
Mike Ferguson
Alana Folsom
Benjamin Garcia
Matty Layne Glasgow
Tyler Goldman
Nicholas Goodly
Parker Hobson
Elizabeth Hoover
David Hutcheson
Christopher Janigian
Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley
Emily Koehn
Kathy McGoldrick
Quinton Moon
Christopher Nelson
Annette Opalczynski
Nathan Xavier Osorio
Melissa Peters
Xandria Phillips
Jessica Regione
Andres Rojas
Leslie Sainz
Jacob Severn
Melanie H.D. Sirof
Todd Smith
Avia Tadmor
Alice Templeton
Christian Teresi
Janell Tryon
H.R. Webster
John Westbrook
Ross White
Chelsea Whitton