December is when literary journals submit their nominations for Pushcart Prizes. Poets Online participates in this competition and in the Best of the Net Anthology competition. The Pushcart Prize was founded in 1976 by Bill Henderson, and being nominated, as well as being published in the annual, is considered one of the most coveted honors in the realm of small press literature.
Of course, nominations from our little online journal face some big names both in the other journals and in the poets nominated. (Pick up a copy of previous prize anthologies and see.)
I ask four other poets to review the issues from the past year, and along with my vote, we select poems with the most votes.
The Pushcart Prize is a prestigious literary award that celebrates outstanding writing published in small presses and literary magazines in print and online. It is not exclusive to poetry but also honors works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each year, editors of small presses and literary magazines nominate works they have published. The original idea of the prizes (which may have become a bit lost) was to showcase voices that may not receive attention from larger publishers. That is certainly true for our nominations. Poems and poets who are nominated are a select group, and winning or being included in the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology often brings significant recognition and helps elevate a poet's career.
Our nominations, if chosen for the Prize, will appear in the 2026 edition, which is the 50th year of its publication.
Our Nominated Poems and Poets
Marking Moments by Rose Ann Higashi (November)
Beside the Gorge by Albert J. Reeves (September)
Unlike Cicadas by Rob Friedman (July)
Dear John Donne by Lianna Wright (April)
Awakening by Leslayann Schecterson (October)
Ken Ronkowitz, Editor
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To see our past prompts and more than 300 issues,
visit our website at poetsonline.org
