2020 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize — The Winners

2020’s 8th Annual Jack Grapes Poetry Prize was our largest contest ever! We received 2,412 entries from all over the world, containing over 3,500 individual poems! From these our readers chose 112 semi-finalists and our three judges, Tony Gloeggler, Bunkong Tuon, and Alexis Rhone Fancher each chose one winner and two finalists. The competition was intense — there were SO many terrific poems. Here are this year’s winners & finalists:

WINNERS
Chiwenite Onyekwelu — “Transatlantic Equation”
Laura Grace Weldon — “Heat”
Ashley Mullin — “A Girl Is a Gun”

FINALISTS
Praise Osawaru — “Stuck in Traffic, I Witness”
Grant Quackenbush — “Houseplant”
Rosalie Sanara Petrouske — “Eating Corn Soup under the Strawberry Moon”
Anthony L Rose — “Hemingway’s Room”
Wale Ayinla — “Prelude to Omissions”
Dan Curley — “Remuria”

Each winner receives $200. Each finalist receives $50.

The semifinalists are listed here.

A contest of this size takes a village. My profound gratitude to the tireless readers, judges and tech people who made the 8th Annual Jack Grapes Poetry Prize a reality: Chanel Brenner, Luke Johnson, Beth Ruscio, Marcus Elman, Jessica Wilson-Cardenas, Jerry Garcia, Kevin Ridgeway, Bambi Here, Bunkong Tuon, Tony Gloeggler, James Fancher, Kalin Clements, Eva Crawford, Adam Leipzig, Chiwan Choi, and of course the spectacular poet/actor/teacher/mentor/raconteur, Los Angeles treasure, Jack Grapes.

We hope you enjoy reading this years’ winners and finalists as much as we did. Leave a comment. We’d like that.

— Alexis Rhone Fancher, Poetry Editor, Cultural Weekly

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