Held annually in loving memory of HoCoPoLitSo’s co-founder, the 2025 Ellen Conroy Kennedy Poetry Prize has now concluded, with our deep thanks to all the participating poets. The first place winner, Chrissy Stegman, was awarded a cash prize of $500, and her winning poem, “Please Be Kind, Rewind,” will be published in the winter issue of The Little Patuxent Review, and read by the author at the launch event now re-scheduled for March 8, 2026. Please check back here in autumn of 2026 for information on next year’s contest.

Past Winners

2025

• First Place – Chrissy Stegman, “Please Be Kind, Rewind”
• Second Place – Jo Tyler, “Ink”

2024

• Neha Misra and the poem, “Vanishing Gardens Return”
• Second Place – Jared Smith, and the poem “Reaching Into Rivers”
• Honorable Mention – Lauren Benoit, and the poem “A Poem for Robert Bly”
• Honorable Mention – Kari Martindale, and the poem “The Beaches of Normandie”

2023

• First Place – Steph Sundermann-Zinger “A Dream of Solitude”
• Second Place – Larraine Denakpo “Lullaby for Daughters”
• Honorable Mention – Eileen Wu “Storms”
• Honorable Mention – Joshua Ward “Thrushes”
• Honorable Mention – Eileen Wu “Storms”

2022

• First Place – Emily Portillo “The Cold”
• Second Place – Chrissy Stegman “Blue Irises”
• Honorable Mention – Dean Gessey “familicus zoologicus”

2021

• First Place – Arhm Choi Wild “Rummage”
• Second Place – Liz Holland “Lifeboy Swept Away”
• Honorable Mention – Judd Hess “Darth Vader”