Pushcart Nominations

Each year, we nominate six poems for the Pushcart Prize from collections published by Kelsay Books that year. Additionally, we nominate three poems from each biannual issue of The Orchards Poetry Journal, our affiliated literary magazine, for a total of six Orchards nominations each year. 

We reject all requests from poets to consider their work for nomination. We make our selection based on the poems we think have the best chance of receiving the prize. Any requests for special consideration will be ignored.

 

Congratulations to our recent Pushcart Prize nominees: 

 

2024 Kelsay Books

• Chuck Madansky, “Sky Writing” from If Life Is Love
• Jean Biegun, “Legacy” from Edge Effects
• Kara Dorris, “Nocturne with Flame” and “Stargazing Where Stop Means Yield” from HitBox
• Nina Clements, “October Lake” from Choosing the Lake
• Shaheen Dil, “The Red Thread” from The Boat-Maker’s Art

 

2024 Orchards Summer

• Mary Ellen Redmond, “Joy is not made to be a crumb”
• Richard Taylor, “Daughter”
• T.F. Jennings, “Carnival After Hours”

 

2024 Orchards Winter

• Phil Powrie, “Each to each”
• Rachael Ikins, “Death’s Contract”
• Merrill Cole, “The Point of Seeing”

 

Nominees from previous years are not listed on this page.