2025 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS
THE 2025 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS
FIRST PRIZE
Daniel Donaghy, Willington, CT “My Mother at Christmas”
Rafaella Del Bourgo, Berkeley, CA “Nightgown, 1960”
SECOND PRIZE
Lisa Coll Nicolaou, Fair Lawn, NJ “Conversations With Grandma Cookie”
Charles Rossiter, Bennington, VA “Ordinary Days Back When”
THIRD PRIZE
John T. Wagner, Irvine, CA “Greenwald's”
Howard Berelson, Teaneck, NJ “My Hands”
Award Winners’ Reading — February 7, 2026, at The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College, 32 Church Street, Paterson, NJ
For 2026 guidelines, visitwww.poetrycenterpccc.com/awards
2025 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
2025 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
WINNERS
Grade Pre K - 3
Boyd Bauman, The Heights of Love (Meadowlark Press, LLC, Emporia, KS)
Adriana Camacho-Church, Grandma, Where Will Your Love Go?/Abuela, ¿adónde irá tu amor? (Arte Pú blico Press, Hoúston, TX)
Grade 4 - 6
Laura Anne Bird, Marvelous Jackson (Orange Hat Públishing, Waúkesha, WI)
Alexandra James Resnick, Do Not Take The Train (Púrple Rabbit Press)
Grade 7 - 12
Mona Alvarado Frazier, A Bridge Home (Arte Público Press, Hoúston, TX)
Matthew J. Kushin, Beware The Smart Kids (Beacon Públishing Groúp, Charleston, SC)
Submission deadline: February 1. For rules and application details, visit www.poetrycenterpccc.com/awards/. For more information, email Cynthia at cpagan@pccc.edu.
2025 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE WINNERS
THE 2025 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE WINNERS
Joan Kwon Glass, Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms (Perugia Press, Florence, MA)
“Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms by Joan Kwon Glass is a gripping book of poems that vibrates with honesty and fear, loss and survival. It is the story of connection to our ancestors and lack of connection, the way sometimes the people who raise us are not the people who love us. A wonderful, wonderful book.”
Nancy Miller Gomez, Inconsolable Objects (YesYes Books, Portland, OR)
“Inconsolable Objects by Nancy Miller Gomez is a ferocious book; a kind of muscular use of language in the search for strength and for survival. It truly changed me. I think it would change every reader. Who could not be touched and moved by the powerful poems of this poet who refuses to give up or give in?”
— Maria Mazziotti Gillan, American Book Award winner
FINALISTS
Jive Poetic, Skip Tracer (Liveright Publishing Co., New York, NY)
Tanya Olson, Born Backwards (YesYes Books, Portland, OR)
Donna Prinzmetal, Each Unkept Secret (Moonpath Press, New Port, OR)
Jim Reese, Dancing Room Only (NYQ Books, Beacon, NY)
Nikki Wallschlaeger, Hold Your Own (Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA)
The Paterson Poetry Prize of $2,000 is given annually by the Poetry Center to a book of poetry (48 pages or more) published in the previous year.
The 2026 submission deadline is February 7, 2026.
THE 2024 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS WINNERS
THE 2024 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARD WINNERS
Honoring Allen Ginsberg’s contribution to American literature and his Paterson upbringing, this annual poetry competition awards the first prize of $2000, the second prize of $1000,
and the third prize of $500 for a single poem.
FIRST PRIZE
Mark Hillringhouse, Verona, NJ “Giving Away All My Books”
Colleen Michaels, Beverly, MA “Round Table”
SECOND PRIZE
Jennifer Martelli, Marblehead, MA “Auntie’s Sliced Pear”
Jason Craig Poole, South Orange, NJ “Sentence”
THIRD PRIZE
R. Bremner, Glen Ridge, NJ “I was a young child, then”
Cindy Veach, Snoqualmie, WA “Drop Leaf Table”
Download a complete list of the winners, Editor’s Choice, and Honorable Mention poems and poets
Guidelines for Submissions for the 2025 Award
2024 Paterson Poetry Prize Winners
The Paterson Poetry Prize is sponsored by The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. It is a $2000 award for a book of poems, 48 pages or more in length, selected by our judges as the strongest collection of poems published in the previous year.
WINNERS
Mahogany L. Browne, Chrome Valley (Liveright Publishing Co., New York, NY)
“Chrome Valley is a praise song to black women, and to all that survive despite everything that tries to kill the spirit inside them. What an unforgettable book!”
Afaa M. Weaver, A Fire in the Hills (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA)
“Afaa M. Weaver’s book, sparks a fire in the heart. Weaver has been writing heart-wrenching, honest poems, and this book continues his tradition of making music out of sorrow and pain and finding the sweetness hidden within our daily lives.”
Comments by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Founder & Executive Director, The Poetry Center at PCCC.
FINALISTS
Oliver de la Paz, The Diaspora Sonnets (Liveright Publishing Co., New York, NY)
Alfred Encarnacion, Precincts of the Passion-Dragon (Kelsay Books, American Fork, UT)
Jennifer Franklin, If Some God Shakes Your House (Four Way Books, New York, NY)
Jared Harél, Let Our Bodies Change the Subject (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE)
Colleen Michaels, Prize Wheel (Small Bites Press, Beverly, MA)
Joe Weil, Saint World (Iniquity Press / Vendetta Books, Seaside Heights, NJ)
2024 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WINNERS
The Poetry Center at PCCC is happy to announce the 2024 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE winners for three grade levels. In each category, a book is selected, which in the opinion of the judges, is the most outstanding book for young people published in the previous year.
Grades Pre K - 3
Carla Ketner, Ted Kooser: More Than a Local Wonder (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE)
René Colato Lainez, Do I Belong Here? / Es este mi lugar? (Arte Público Press, Hoúston, TX)
Grades 4 - 6
Kevin Carey, Junior Miles and the Junkman (Regal Hoúse Públishing / Fitzroy Books, Raleigh, NC)
Tracy Occomy Crowder, Montgomery and the Case of the Golden Key (Tú Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc., New York, NY)
Grades 7 - 12
S. E. Reed, My Heart is Hurting (Wild Ink Públishing, Camphill, PA)
Anica Mrose Rissi, Wishing Season (Qúill Tree Books, An Imprint of Harper Collins Públishers, New York, NY)
Guidelines and an application for the 2025 award are available on our AWARDS page.
Joshua Bennett and Tom Sleigh Win the 2023 Paterson Poetry Prize
THE 2023 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE WINNERS are Joshua Bennett for The Study of Human Life (Penguin Books, New York, NY) and Tom Sleigh for The King’s Touch: Poems (Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN).
Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Founder & Executive Director of The Poetry Center at PCCC, says of these books:
“Joshua Bennett’s book, The Study of Human Life, captures the extraordinary in ordinary lives, and explores black experiences and relationships. This book is brilliant and moving.
Tom Sleigh’s book, The King’s Touch: Poems, is unflinching in its ability to look at and see the trauma and ugliness in the world, and yet not to despair. This book seeks to heal all that is broken and tortured, comfort all the refugees and lost people, and take us to a place where compassion is a salve that heals.”
FINALISTS
Ama Codjoe, Bluest Nude: Poems (Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN)
Matthew Dickman, Husbandry (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)
James Hoch, Last Pawn Shop in New Jersey (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA)
Julia Lisella, Our Lively Kingdom: Poems (Bordighera Press, New York, NY)
Wesley McNair, Late Wonders: New and Selected Poems (Godine, Boston, MA)
Bianca Stone, What Is Otherwise Infinite : Poems (Tin House, Portland, OR)
SUSTAINED LITERARY EXCELLENCE AWARD
Vivian Shipley, Hindsight: 2020 (Louisiana Literature Press, Hammond, LA)
THE 2023 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS
The Poetry Center at PCCC is pleased to announce the 2023 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS WINNERS/
FIRST PRIZE
Linda Nemec Foster, Grand Rapids, MI “When We Talk About the Movie, Casablanca, My Father Remembers Every Line …”
Caroline Russell, Jersey City, NJ “An Ode to Mildred”
SECOND PRIZE
Lorraine Conlin, Wantagh, NY “First Date”
Christine Rhein, Brighton, MI “Cooking with My Sister”
THIRD PRIZE
Marcia LeBeau, South Orange, NJ “Toward the River”
Lynne Viti, Westwood, MA “Westwood Lodge, the Summer Hotel”
For a complete list of the winners, honorable mentions, and editor’s choice poems and poets, see our press release on the Contests and Awards page, where you will also find the guidelines for entering next year’s contest.
Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award Publication Celebration April 29
A reading celebrating the publication of Man at the Railing by Edwin Romond, winner of the 2022 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award will be held at The Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, NJ on April 29, 2023.
There will be a reception with food and drinks at noon and the reading will begin at 1 pm.
This event celebrates the first Award publication which honors the legacy of poet Laura Boss.
In attendance will be Laura’s son, Barry Boss, who founded the Laura Boss Poetry Foundation. The members of the Foundation board - Michelle Lerner, James Haba, Jim Gwyn, Ken Ronkowitz and Maria Gillan - will also attend and introduce the readers. Maria Gillan was also the final judge for this initial Award. Raymond Hammond, publisher of NYQ Books that published the winning book, will also be in attendance.
All five finalists for the award will also be reading.
Edwin Romond is the author of five collections of poetry, his work has appeared in journals, college textbooks, and has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac. He has been awarded poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Councils on the Arts. His poem, “Champion,” won the 2013 New Jersey Poetry Prize. Romond was a public school teacher for 32 years in Wisconsin and New Jersey. A native of Woodbridge, NJ, he now lives in Wind Gap, PA. His website is edwinromond.com
Jennifer Poteet's work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Adirondack Review, 2River View, The Cortland Review, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, Paterson Literary Review, Pedestal Magazine, Mom Egg Review, Swwim, The Night Heron Barks and elsewhere. Her chapbook Sleepwalking Home was published by Dancing Girl Press. Her website is jenniferpoteet.com
Tony Gloeggler is a lifelong resident of NYC who has managed a group home for developmentally disabled men in Brooklyn for over 40 years. His chapbook One On One won the 1998 Pearl Poetry Prize. His first full-length collection, One Wish Left, published by Pavement Saw Press went into a 2nd printing in 2007. Until The Last Light Leaves (NYQ Books) was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award in 2016. What Kind of Man (NYQ Books, 2020) was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. You can find Tony on Facebook.
Carole Stone is Distinguished Professor of English, emerita, at Montclair State University. She has published five books of poetry among them Traveling with the Dead (Backwaters Press) and American Rhapsody (Cavankerry Press). Her recent work has appeared in Blue Fifth Journal, Slab, and Bellevue Literary Review. She has won three fellowships from The NJ State Council on the Arts. Her book, Limited Editions will be published by Cavankerry Press in 2023.
Svea Barrett is a retired teacher. Her poems have appeared in The Paterson Literary Review, Lips, The Edison Literary Review, Griffel, The Rat’s Ass Review, The NJ English Journal, and others. Her chapbook, Why I Collect Moose, won the 2005 Poet’s Corner Press Chapbook Contest, and her book, I Tell Random People About You, won the 2010 Spire Press Poetry Award. She tied for first place in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest in 2013.
Lisa Coll Nicolaou, a graduate of Yale University, is a lifelong educator and writer. For many years she was the creative writing teacher at The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ. Lisa has been a visiting poet in the Paterson Schools since 1997 and now serves as the program director of the Theater and Poetry Project in Paterson. Her poetry and prose have been published in Oprah Magazine, Lips, The Paterson Literary Review, and other journals. In 2016, she shared first prize in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest.
For information on the Foundation and its work, go to laurabosspoetryfoundation.org
THE 2023 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WINNERS
The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey is pleased to announce the winning books and authors for the 2023 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
WINNERS
Grade Pre K - 3
Desiree Cooper, Nothing Special (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI)
Crystal Hubbard, Marvelous Mabel: Figure Skating Superstar (Lee & Low Books Inc., New York, NY)
Grade 4 - 6
Alda P. Dobbs, The Other Side of the River (Sourcebooks Young Readers, Naperville, IL)
Diane Zahler, Goblin Market (Holiday House, New York, NY)
Grade 7 - 12
Barbara Krasner, Ethel’s Song: Ethel Rosenberg’s Life in Poems (Calkins Creek, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers, New York, NY)
Monica Zepeda, Boys of the Beast (Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, New York, NY)
Click here for the rules and an application, and for more information, email sdesai@pccc.edu