POEMS FROM THE 2026 MARSH HAWK POETRY PRIZE WINNERS

We are delighted to present two sample poems each by our prize winners Anne Champion, Eugene Gloria, and Cassie Burkhardt. They can be read at https://marshhawkpress.org/poetry-prize/2026-marsh-hawk-press-poetry-prizes/poems-from-the-2026-contest-winners/

MARK MELNICK ON BOOK COVER DESIGNS

Mark Melnick offers an insightful essay on book cover design and marketing as the July contributor to Marsh Hawk's "Chapter One" series. You can see his entire article HERE, but we present this excerpt because his experienced insight can be helpful to many authors:

"It is also important for authors to understand that 'graphic design' is very different from 'art.' I have worked with many authors — especially poets — who suggest a painting for their book’s cover. Often, that painting is very dense and complex (think Hieronymus Bosch), and the author will send me a lengthy explanation of their reasoning for using it, the meanings and resonances they see embedded in it, and how it reflects the text. Yet this misunderstands the purpose of a cover. A cover is not meant to be an analog to the text. A cover is not art, which is meant to invite introspection and contemplation, slowly over time. A cover is graphic design, which needs to do its job almost instantly — literally in one second. It is emotional, not intellectual."

To illustrate his points, Mark comments on the Marsh Hawk books of Eileen R. Tabios and Daniel Morris.

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Mark Melnick began his graphic design career at Interview magazine while still in college, and went on to staff positions with Tibor Kalman/M&Co, Viking/Penguin, and Vintage/Knopf, before starting his own design studio in 2002. He has designed multiple career-spanning monographs for artists Chuck Close, Chip Kidd, and Duane Michals; has worked extensively with The Library of America and The Harvard Lampoon; and has designed dozens of covers for prize-winning playwrights through Theatre Communications Group.

2026 MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZE WINNERS

 Congratulations to the winners of our annual poetry prizes judged by Denise Duhamel:

CONGRATULATIONS TO SANDY MCINTOSH!

Congratulations to Marsh Hawk Managing Editor Sandy McIntosh whose ESCAPE FROM THE FAT FARM has been shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Book Award!

Info on Award: https://www.hofferaward.com/Eric-Hoffer-Award-grand-prize-short-list.html

Info on Sandy's Book: https://sandymcintosh.info

EILEEN R. TABIOS ON "CHAPTER ONE"

 You are invited to read about Eileen Tabios' experience as a newspaper poetry columnist, the latest contribution to Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" series of essays by poets.

https://marshhawkpress.org/eileen-r-tabios-on-writing-a-newspaper-poetry-column-2/

LIZ ROSE SHULMAN on "CHAPTER ONE"

 You are invited to read Liz Rose Shulman's essay "The Green Notebook" as the February essay in Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" series. You can see the essay HERE.

Liz Rose Shulman

R.I.P., ED FOSTER

 

From Marsh Hawk Press Managing Editor Sandy McIntosh:

Our greatly admired colleague, Ed Foster, a past member of the Marsh Hawk Editorial Board and the founder of Talisman Books and magazine, has passed away.

We greatly appreciate the guidance he gave Marsh Hawk from its early days, as well as the time he spent as an active editor. Several of his poetry collections published by Marsh Hawk remain in print.

I believe you’ll agree with me that he will be missed.

On Ed Foster: https://talismanbooks.org/Edward-Foster

LISA FISHMAN ON "CHAPTER ONE"

 

You are invited to read the latest contributor to Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" series: Lisa Fishman! You can find her resonant essay at https://marshhawkpress.org/lisa-fishman-i-turn-the-notebook-upside-down/

NEW CONTEST JUDGE DENISE DUHAMEL!

 

FILIPINO AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

 You are invited to explore Eileen R. Tabios' two most recent Marsh Hawk Books which are THE INVENTOR: A TRANSCOLONIAL POET'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY and the book of poems and poetics prose BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, I BECOME WAR. Both are cited in CLMP's Recommended Readings for Filipino History Month.

2025 MARSH HAWK BOOK LAUNCH!

 You are invited!

AN AUDIO BOOK FOR POETRY: LIANE STRAUSS!

You are invited to read the very interesting story of how Liane Strauss created an audio book from her Marsh Hawk Press Award-winning collection! 

https://marshhawkpress.org/liane-strauss-listening-allowed/

QUEST ANTHOLOGY IS AVAILABLE FOR ADVANCE ORDERS

QUEST, Marsh Hawk Press' latest Chapter One anthology, just became available for Advance Orders:

QUEST: A WRITER'S JOURNEY

presenting 26 memoirs and interviews of poets from diverse backgrounds who recall how they started. Edited by Sandy McIntosh and Susan Terris and Featuring

Ellen Bass

Lauren Blossom

Patricia Carlin

Denise Duhamel

Elaine Equi

Steve Fellner

Forrest Gander

Jane Hirshfield

Ilya Kaminsky

Danusha Laméris

David Lehman

Phillip Lopate

Denise Low

Mary Mackey

Charles A. Matz

Sandy McIntosh

Stephen Paul Miller

Rusty Morrison

Annalise Nassani

Jim Natal

Karin Randolph

Spencer Rumsey

David St. John

R. L. Stine

Liane Strauss

Eileen R. Tabios

Amber Flora Thomas

Tony Trigilio

Xiaoqiu Qiu

Some Advance Words:

"The art of writing a good line, of putting aside time to write, the resilience to deal with rejections, and the will to keep writing in dark times are all passed down from one poet to another. May this book carry on that tradition, one voice after another, describing, step by step, the rocky path down to the open sea."

– Danusha Laméris, from her Introduction

“ Simply the best collection of essays I’ve ever read about the urgencies, accidents, experiences, and desires that allow people to emerge as the writers they had never dreamt they might become.”

– Poet and Writing Professor David St. John

If you're interested in checking it out, Advance Order info is at https://chapter-one.marshhawkpress.org

DENISE LOW-WESO WRITES FOR "CHAPTER ONE" ABOUT WILLIAM STAFFORD

You are invited to read Denise Low-Weso's moving essay about her relationship with William Stafford as part of our "Chapter One" series. It begins:

William Stafford was more than a mentor to me. He was also my poetry father figure. Born within months of my father and a few miles in Kansas, they blurred into one archetype. Both spoke in the laconic Great Plains dialect with long pauses, detailed descriptions of landmarks, and elastic diphthongs for emphasis. Both had a steely morality not obscured by agreeable manners. Stafford taught me how to be a Kansan—with its mix of self-deprecating humor, goodwill, social responsibility, and rigor—as well as how to parse a poetic line.

The entire essay is HERE.

DAVID LEHMAN WINS NEW CRITERION POETRY PRIZE

 Congratulations to David Lehman for winning the 25th New Criterion Poetry Prize! The prize is for his manuscript Ithaca which is comprised of 60 sonnets. Through the Prize, the book will be published in February 2026.

More information about the Prize is at https://newcriterion.com/dispatch/david-lehman-wins-the-twenty-fifth-new-criterion-poetry-prize/

CHRIS SOLIS GREEN at "CHAPTER ONE" SERIES

 You are invited to read Chris Solis Green's contribution to our "Chapter One" series on being an "Accidental Poet"--at times, it's hilarious! The link is at:

https://marshhawkpress.org/chris-solis-green-the-accidental-poet/

RECIPIENTS OF THE MARSH HAWK POETRY PRIZES

 Congratulations to the winners of the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prizes, judged by Elaine Equi:

The 2025 MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZES

CONTEST JUDGE: ELAINE EQUI

.

The MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZE

($2,000.00 Cash Prize and Publication of the Book.)

MARJORIE STEIN unRavel

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The ROBERT CREELEY MEMORIAL AWARD

($250.00 Cash Prize)

TIMOTHY YU, 77 Chinese Dreams

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The ROCHELLE RATNER MEMORIAL AWARD

($250.00 Cash Prize)

PAMELA ALEXANDER, After We Broke the Sky

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FINALISTS

Joseph Elliot, James McCorkle, Orlando Menes, Lisa Majaj, Michael Lawson, Lisa Furmanski, and George Young

EILEEN R. TABIOS RELEASES SECOND NOVEL, THE BALIKBAYAN ARTIST

 You are invited to the launch of Eileen R. Tabios' published novel, THE BALIKBAYAN ARTIST (Penguin Random House SEA, 2024-5):

HOLIDAY SPECIAL ON CHAPTER ONE BOOKS!

 Our distributor IPG Books is offering a 30% discounted special on the three most recent books from Marsh Hawk’s critically acclaimed “Chapter One: On Becoming A Poet” series. You can go to this link—use the code “MarshhawkHoliday2024”—for ordering: https://www.ipgbook.com/marsh-hawk-press-publisher-MHW.php

A REVIEW OF EILEEN R. TABIOS' THE INVENTOR

TC Marshall reviews Eileen R. Tabios' literary autobiography THE INVENTOR in the new issue of The Halo Halo Review. You can see the entire review HERE, but here are excerpts:

"THE INVENTOR: A Poet's Transcolonial Autobiography is not just about one person who invented things. It is about several inventions in poetics brought to us by Eileen R. Tabios. For all that Mary Anderson and her windshield wiper did to improve life on the road, Tabios’ story is larger and involves nearly all of us as it works to transcend and repair the damage done by colonial attitudes and practices. In this book, you hear about poetic inventions, forms and methods and approaches that make for new possibilities in poetry and beyond, about poetry as a purposeful practice and a way of improving life.

...

All poetry implies a poetics. Eileen Tabios’ has made this fact a focus without stopping there. The poetics of her poetry has social implications. It is actively anti-colonial, pointedly de-colonizing, and perpetually inventive. It is a good deed, a mitzvah, an action of connection as it makes such mitzvot more possible for more of us. Read THE INVENTOR and try some of its approaches; you’ll get it, and you’ll want to become a “Transcolonial” inventor too. As Tabios says, “through poetry, I wish for no one or nothing to be alien to me” (43); you can get there yourself by employing forms and approaches that let anything arise. As she says at the end, “Dear Reader, my poetry has never been my words, but yours” (99). This book is a seed packet; so read it, and go grow some poetry yourself."