The 2024 Hermit Crab Challenge Winners and Finalists
Our Hermit Crab 10 Day challenge this fall invited submitters to try out a new technique, and poets were writing and submitting “hermit crab,” poems, which are poems that borrow form found in other sources—a poem built from a grocery list, a job application form, all kinds of signage, anything with a structure which can be hijacked and turned into an inventive and evocative piece of creative writing. Working through the innovative and sometimes wildly unexpected submissions was fun and sometimes, surprising, but our editors have finally selected winners and finalists.
Join us in congratulating Joshua Lavender, whose poem. “ni·loo (a personal definition)” has been selected as our winner. His poem, using the form of a dictionary entry, leaves the reader with lots of questions, but the balance of revealing and withholding built a poetic space that was haunting, emotionally charged, and unforgettable. Runners up Eliza Gilbert with “Mad Lib,” and Steven Wright with “The Timesick Poet,” showed us even more examples of the expansive possibilities of this form.
Thank you to all of our submitters for their incredible and imaginative submissions. Our winners and runners up will be published in the coming weeks.
WINNER
Joshua Lavender
“ni·loo (a personal definition)”
Second Place
Eliza Gilbert
“Mad Lib”
Third Place
Steven Wright
“The Timesick Poet”
The Finalists
Sophie Kaiser Rojas
Carolyn Ansley
MIichael Cunliffe
Nicole Hart
Carolyn Philips
Alan Smith
Rachel Fettig
Paul Doty
James Toupin
Peyton Sibert
Julie Marie Wade
angelic goldsky
Mykki Rios
Suzette Given
Max Wallis
Andrea Eaker
Kailey Gordamo
Jeremy Cantor
Suzanna de Baca
Karen Estep
