Finalists for the 2024 Starrett Poetry Prize

Finalists for the 2024 Starrett Poetry Prize

Finalists for the 2024 Starrett Poetry Prize

The Pitt Poetry Series at the University of Pittsburgh Press is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2024 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, selected by Shara McCallum:

  • How We Keep Each Other Company by Talia Bloch
  • The Living Sign by Colby Cotton
  • What God in the Kingdom of Bastards by Brian Gyamfi
  • Querida by Nathan Osorio

The winner will be announced on December 18, 2023.

Established in 1981, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, named in honor of the Press’s first director, is awarded for a first full-length book of poems. The prize carries a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press as part of the Pitt Poetry Series.

Past winners include Trailer Park Psalms by Ryler Dustin (2023), Brown Girl Chromatography by Anuradha Bhowmik (2022), Lauren Kolbe, Tiana Clark, Nate Marshall, Erin Adair-Hodges, among many others.

Since its inception in 1967, the Pitt Poetry Series has been a vehicle for America’s finest contemporary poets. The series list includes Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Toi Derricotte, Aurielle Marie, Paul Hlava Ceballos, Ross Gay, Reginald Shepherd, Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ted Kooser, Larry Levis, Sharon Olds, Joy Priest, Afaa Michael Weaver, David Hernandez, and many others. Throughout its history, the Pitt Poetry Series has provided a voice for the diversity that is American poetry, representing poets from many backgrounds without allegiance to any one school or style.

The Pitt Poetry Series is currently edited by Terrance Hayes, Nancy Krygowski, and Jeffrey McDaniel.