2024 Rising Poet Prize: Winners & Finalists
We are delighted to share the winners, finalists, and longlist for the 2024 Rising Poet Prize for emerging poets! Please join us in congratulating these brilliant poets. Deep gratitude to all who shared moving poems with us—we are so lucky to have been immersed in the worlds of your work. The winning poem and runner-ups were selected by guest judge Morgan Parker and are published on the Palette website.
Winners of the 2024 Rising Poet Prize
1st place — Akhim Yuseff Cabey for “Olentangy River, 2019”
Akhim Yuseff Cabey was born in the Bronx, New York. A Pushcart Prize-winning Black author, his debut poetry collection Get Funky, Get Swoll is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press. His work has appeared in Colorado Review, RHINO, Indiana Review, The Florida Review, Shenandoah, Callaloo, and elsewhere. A six-time recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, he now lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he teaches Adult Education. He can be found on Instagram @the_fit_poet.
2nd place — Tamar Ashdot for “Stevie Wonder boulevard”
An interdisciplinary artist raised in Brooklyn, New York, Tamar is an educator, poet, essayist, photographer, and musician. Tamar holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Michigan, is an Academy of American Poets College Prize winner and a recipient of fellowships from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program and Vermont Studio Center. Tamar’s poetry is forthcoming or published in Palette Poetry, American Literary Review, Michigan Quarterly Review mixtape, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, and Paterson Literary Review, amongst others. Tamar has facilitated workshops on a variety of topics, ranging from Creative Writing to Professional Development in Arts Education, for high school and undergraduate students with organizations such as InsideOut Literary Arts, NYC Department of Education, University of Michigan, and others. www.tamarashdot.com
3rd place — Marisa Lainson for “This Little Piggy Went to the Market”
Marisa Lainson is a poet from Southern California. She recently earned her MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where she served as Poetry Editor of Faultline Journal of Arts & Letters and was selected as first runner-up for the 2022 University of California Graduate Prize for Excellence in Poetry. Their work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, The Journal, Poet Lore, The Pinch, Frontier Poetry and elsewhere. Find her online at marisalainson.com.
Finalists
Chuck Collins
Aloma Davis
Monir Gholamzadeh Bazarbash
Phillip Haddix
Ramsey Tawfick
Connor Weirich
Claire Zhou
Longlist
Ibukun Adeeko
Hannah Butcher
Elisa Carter
Trinity Catlin
David Edwards
Kristin Entler
Kristyn Garza
Raquelle Koontz Bostow
Karen Lee
Ibe Liebenberg
Louisa Moratti
Sarbani Mukherjee
Zain Rishi
Stephen Roberts
Yomalis Rosario
Samantha Rosas
Megan Spring
Nathan Young