2024-25 Previously Published Poem Prize: Winners & Finalists
We are delighted to share the winners, finalists, and longlist for the 2024-25 Previously Published Poem Prize! 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 Palette editors and are published on the Palette website.
Winners of the 2024-25 Previously Published Poem Prize
1st place — Ollie Schminkey for “My Father” — first published in Frontier Poetry
Ollie Schminkey (they/them) has spent the past decade coaching, mentoring, teaching classes, and running workshops for poets. Their work has been featured everywhere from Poets.org to Frontier Poetry to Upworthy, and they’ve performed poems in 21 states, with their work garnering over 3 million views on YouTube. They are the author of four chapbooks and two full-length collections: Where I Dry the Flowers (Button Poetry, 2024) and Dead Dad Jokes (Button Poetry, 2021), which was shortlisted for both the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. They are the founder and director of Midwest Poetry Mash-Up and a recipient of a 2025 Arts Impact for Individuals grant through the Minnesota Regional Arts Council. You can also find them teaching classes through Writers.com, making pottery, dancing in their kitchen, or playing with their cat Pete, who is always trying to eat things he shouldn’t.
2nd place — Eli Karren for “Portrait of a Small Town Where the Flower Shop has Committed Suicide” — first published in Cimarron Review
Eli Karren is a poet and educator based in Austin, TX. His work can be found in the West Trade Review, Cimarron Review, and Harvard Review as well as forthcoming in swamp pink and At Length.
3rd place — Garnet Juniper Bennet for “anticipating flame” — first published in Qwerty
Garnet Juniper Bennet is a writer and educator corrupted in the American high desert who attempts redemption by practicing their craft in the Pacific Northwest. Their work has been featured in publications such as Rattle, Crab Creek Review, Salamander, Waxwing, and Poet Lore. Recent honors include the selection of their poem “Burnout” for 1st place in the 2024 Crystal Ox Poetry contest, and the selection of their manuscript angel/androgyne as a runner-up in the 2023 Catamaran Literary Reader West Coast Poetry Prize.
Finalists
Jonathan W. Carroll
Lynda V. E. Crawford
Michael J. Galko
Maurya Kerr
Nnamdi Ndiolo
Kate Welsh
Dominika Wrozynski
Longlist
Stacey Balkun
Anneliese Finke
Marina Kraiskaya
Trinity Tibe
Imogen Wade
Adele Elise Williams
Ros Zimmermann