The 2021 Industry Prize — Winners and Finalists!
Congratulations to the talented emerging poet Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, winner of the 2021 Industry Prize, and a sincere thanks to everyone who submitted. Thank you, also, for your patience while we reviewed all the extraordinary work. Eduardo Martinez-Leyva has been selected for the first place $3000 prize by guest judges Jenny Molberg, director of Pleiades Press, and Michael Wiegers, Executive Editor of Copper Canyon Press. Michelle Peñaloza is our 2nd place winner, and Anders Villani our third. We are so excited to share their work with you this month!
WINNER
Eduardo Martinez-Leyva
“Don’t Look Back, Little Halo”
To be published on February 22, 2022
Eduardo Martinez-Leyva was born on the U.S. Mexico border to Mexican immigrants. His work has appeared in The Boston Review, The Adroit Journal, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. He’s received fellowships from CantoMundo, The Frost Place, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
2nd Place
Michelle Peñaloza
“I Tell My Mother I Don’t Think Trying To Get Pregnant During a Pandemic is Good Idea”
To be published on February 23, 2022
Michelle Peñaloza is the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Institute, 2019). She is also the author of two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). Her work has been published in The Georgia Review, River Styx, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Poetry Northwest and elsewhere. The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and raised in Nashville, TN. She now lives in rural Northern California, in Covelo/Round Valley.
3rd Place
Anders Villani
“Poison”
To be published on January 13, 2022
Anders Villani holds an MFA from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where he received the Delbanco Prize for poetry. He is the author of two collections: Aril Wire (Five Islands Press, 2018); and Totality, forthcoming in 2022 from Recent Work Press. A PhD candidate at Monash University and assistant poetry editor of Australian Book Review, he lives in Melbourne.
The Finalists Are
Sara Elkamel
Laura Joyce-Hubbard
Josephine Blair Cipriano
Jeff Whitney
Danie Shokoohi
Camille McDaniel
Bola Opaleke
The Poets on the Longlist Are
Xinran Dai
Whitney Kerutis
Tim Moder
Tara Mesalik MacMahon
Sophia Tonnessen
Shannon Hardwick
Patheresa Wells
Laura Paul Watson
Laura Joyce-Hubbard
Kyle Carrero Lopez
Jaxyn Randall
James Bascom
Hannah Treasure
Hannah Perrin King
Felicity Sheehy
Elaine Zimmerman
Elaine Zimmerman
Danny Ngo
Ben Kline
Armen Davoudian
