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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. Will you be next?

Four winners receive a reading at 92Y, publication in The Paris Review Daily, a two-night residency at the ACE Hotel, and $500 each.

Read selections by last year's winners: Alfredo Aguilar, Bernard Ferguson, Omotara James, Alycia Pirmohamed.

Applications must be submitted by Friday, January 10, 2020, at 5 pm.

To apply, read the guidelines and submit here.

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

Winners

Alfredo Aguilar

Alfredo Aguilar is the son of Mexican immigrants. He is the author of the chapbook What Happens on Earth …

Alfredo Aguilar

Alfredo Aguilar is the son of Mexican immigrants. He is the author of the chapbook What Happens on Earth. His work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Best New Poets 2017, The Shallow Ends and elsewhere. Originally from North County San Diego, he now resides in Texas.

Bernard Ferguson

Bernard Ferguson is a Bahamian immigrant poet, an MFA candidate at NYU, a Writers in the Public Schools fellow and an Assistant Editor at Washington Square Review …

Bernard Ferguson

Bernard Ferguson is a Bahamian immigrant poet, an MFA candidate at NYU, a Writers in the Public Schools fellow and an Assistant Editor at Washington Square Review. He’s the winner of the 2019 Nâzım Hikmet Poetry Prize, a 2019 Adroit Journal Gregory Djanikian Scholar and his work is published or forthcoming in The Common, SLICE Magazine, Pinwheel, Winter Tangerine and Best New Poets 2017.

Omotara James

Omotara James is the author of the chapbook Daughter Tongue, selected by African Poetry Book Fund for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set …

Omotara James

Omotara James is the author of the chapbook Daughter Tongue, selected by African Poetry Book Fund for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set. Born in Britain, she is the daughter of Nigerian and Trinidadian immigrants. Her poetry has appeared in Academy of American Poets, Literary Hub, Poetry Society of America and elsewhere. She has been awarded fellowships from Lambda Literary and the Cave Canem Foundation.

Alycia Pirmohamed

Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet living in Scotland, where she is completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh …

Alycia Pirmohamed

Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet living in Scotland, where she is completing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of the chapbook Faces that Fled the Wind, and the winner of the 2018 Ploughshares Emerging Writers’ Contest in Poetry. Her poetry has recently appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Adroit Journal, The London Magazine, Room Magazine, Glass: A Journal of Poetry and others. Alycia received an MFA from the University of Oregon.

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

Faith Arkorful
Chelsea B. DesAutels
Jean Balderston
Adam Bangser
Lesya Bazylewicz
Jeanette Beebe
Heather Bourbeau
Kinsey Cantrell
Holli Carrell
William Leo Coakley
Caitlin Cowan
Ann DeVilbiss
Ruth Dickey
Richard Downing
Asa Drake
Joe Gutierrez
W.J. Herbert
Jose Hernandez Diaz
Jordan Hewson
Paul Ceballos Hlava
Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Christopher Janigian
Robert Julius
Trevor Ketner
Michael Lee
Esther Lin
Lucia LoTempio
Mark Mazzoli
Marcus Myers
C. L. O'Dell
Nathan Osorio
Oscar Oswald
Allyson Paty
Laura Paul Watson
Richard Quigley
Rob Shapiro
D. M. Spratley
Taylor Supplee
Jeannette Vautier
Nick Visconti
Ralf Webb
Jihyun Yun
Kelleen Zubick

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