Pittsburgh, PA – The Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize:  Afua Ansong, Mother’s First Word Was Light  Robert Laidler, Glass Letter  Max Lasky, Against Adieu  Migwi Mwangi, Desire Path  Jessica Nordell, Your Singing Is How We Will Find You    The winner, selected by Terrance Hayes, will be announced on January 28, 2026.   Established in 1981, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is administered by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Named in honor of Agnes Lynch Starrett, the Press’s first director, the prize is awarded for a first full-length book of poems.  Past winners…

No Rhododendron by Samyak Shertok has been longlisted for the 2026 PEN Open Book Award, the PEN America Literary Awards announced. No Rhododendron is one of ten finalists, which goes “to an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of color.” Part elegy, part poetry of witness, and part poetry of exile, No Rhododendron is a lament to the poet-speaker’s father and fatherland and a grief-wrought love letter to his mother and mother tongue. The collection is haunted by an existential question about Shertok’s oral mother tongue, Tamang: How do you write about a language that has…

The 2025 reading period for the Pitt Poetry Series is now open. Submissions to the Pitt Poetry Series are open to any poet writing in English who has published at least one full-length poetry collection. The qualification of prior full-length publication is defined as a book of 48 or more pages, exclusive of front matter, in a recognized publisher’s print edition of at least 500 copies. Poets who have not published a book before, or only in limited editions of less than 500 copies, or who have published chapbooks, should refer to the rules for our first-book competition, the Agnes Lynch…

The Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh Press continues its tradition of publishing the finest contemporary poetry by announcing the forthcoming publication of the following collections: Steeplechase by Angela Ball: In a voice that is humorous, bewildered, disillusioned, hopeful, Steeplechase explores multiple landscapes, countries known and unknown, cities and inhabitants both aspirational and lost. On sale 2/10/2026   Antediluvian by Kameryn Alexa Carter: “Engaging with themes of the ecstatic, desire, mental illness, and spirituality, Antediluvian’s speaker calls on an intertextual constellation of artists as they attempt to wade through agoraphobia, parse out their relationship with God, and navigate…

Pittsburgh, PA – The Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2025 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, selected by Nate Marshall: Asa Drake, Maybe the Body Bobby Elliott, The Same Man Luke Patterson, Medic Alafia Sessions, Nine Drops of Turpentine Rob Shapiro, Human Nature The winner will be announced on December 11, 2024. Established in 1981, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is administered by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Named in honor of Agnes Lynch Starrett, the Press’s first director, the prize is awarded for a first full-length book…