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2024 Yeats Poetry Prize Winners Announced

Poets from Atlanta GA, Madison NJ, Toronto Canada, Cambridge MA, Columbia OH

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NEW YORK, NY (March 20) – Four Americans and one Canadian have won 2024 Yeats Poetry Prize awards, the 27th year of the competition, which is open to poets of all ages from anywhere in the world.

 

The 2024 judge was January O'Neil, author most recently of Glitter Road (February 2024), and other works, including Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press.

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                      Carlos Andrés Gómez             Sean Nevin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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      Caroline King             Punam Nimchonok         Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

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First prize of $1,000 went to “Double Golden Shovel Sonnet Found on the Q Train” by Carlos Andrés Gómez, Atlanta, GA; and Second prize of $500 went to “Kapuśniak” by Sean Nevin, Madison, NJ. Honorable mentions include “Prayer Wing” by Dr. Punam Mony Nimchonok, Toronto, Canada; “Orlando” by Caroline King, Cambridge, MA; and “I Always Thought I’d Marry a Sasha” by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Columbus, OH.

 

In her judge’s report, Ms. O’Neil said this year’s submissions reminded her of poetry’s “continuing power to bridge divides, cross borders, recognize struggles, and celebrate joys. I am most thankful for poetry’s ability to create empathy. Poetry acknowledges our past, reflects our present, and gazes into our future.”

 

The Yeats Poetry Prize winners’ poems are published in the competition’s 2024 report, which will appear in April on the society’s website. April is National Poetry Month. The winners also receive a plaque and two-year society membership and are invited to a public awards ceremony and reading of their poems, Thursday, April 18, 6:00 pm-7:00 pm, at the Barnes and Noble flagship Union Square bookstore in New York City.

 

“As this year’s submissions indicate, the wonder of poetry never ceases,” said Don Bates, WB Yeats Society of NY executive board volunteer, and this year’s poetry prize co-coordinator with fellow board member Eddie Vega. “The entries reflect humankind’s take on the issues of the day as well as the eternal search for meaning and understanding.” 

 

Bates added, “Yeats would be pleased with what this year’s poets wrought. As he said of the merits of writing and reading poetry, ‘So great a sweetness flows into the breast /We must laugh and we must sing, /We are blest by everything, /Everything we look upon is blest.’”

 

Previous judges of the Yeats prize include poets L.S. Asekoff, Billy Collins, Alfred Corn, Alan Feldman, Jessica Greenbaum, Eamon Grennan, Ann Kjellberg, Campbell McGrath, Leslie McGrath, Samuel Menashe, Paul Muldoon, Marie Ponsot, Alice Quinn, Spencer Reese, Grace Schulman, Harvey Shapiro, and Bill Zavatsky.

 

The WB Yeats Society of NY is dedicated to sharing the legacy and life of the world-famous Irish poet; it was founded by Andrew McGowan, president, June 13, 1990, on the Nobel laureate’s 125th birthday. For more details, visit www.yeatssociety.nyc. The 2025 competition will accept poems on Submittable from September 1st through February 1, 2025.

 

2024 WINNING POETS BY NAME AND CURRENT LOCATION

 

FIRST PLACE

• Carlos Andrés Gómez, Atlanta, Georgia, for “Double Golden Shovel Sonnet Found on the Q Train”

 

SECOND PLACE

• Sean Nevin, Madison, New Jersey, for “Kapuśniak”

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Dr. Punam Mony Nimchonok, Toronto, Canada, for “Prayer Wing”

• Caroline King, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for “Orlando”

• Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Columbus, Ohio, for “I Always Thought I’d Marry a Sasha”

 

TO CONTACT THE WINNERS

Email or call Don Bates, batesdon1@msn.com, 917-913-8940.

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FREE

Presentation, Reading of 2024 Poetry Prize Poems

Thursday, April 18, 6PM-7PM

Barnes and Noble, Union Square NYC,

33 East 17th Street at Park Avenue South

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation of the 2024 Yeats Poetry Prize Winners by poet and competition judge January O'Neil. Marking Poetry Month, the program includes reading of the winning poems: “Double Golden Shovel Sonnet Found on the Q Train” by Carlos Andres Gomez, first Prize; “Kapusniak” by Sean Nevin, second prize; and “Prayer Wing” by Punam Nimchonok, “Orlando” by Caroline King, and “I Always Thought I’d Marry a Sasha” by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, honorable mentions. Reserve a place so you're guaranteed a seat.

https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062166580-0

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MEET W.B. YEATS

FOR A DAY -- 'Annual Taste of the Yeats Summer School in New York'

Saturday, April 20, 2024, 9:30am-4:30pm

NYU Glucksman Ireland House,

One Washington Mews, East Side of Fifth Avenue, One Block North of Washington Square Arch

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All-day program evoking spirit of the school in Ireland. Includes a social and summer school reunion. Speakers scheduled: “Yeats and the Nobel Prize:” Martin Enright of Sligo, via Zoom, describes how the 1923 award came at a time that was changing Ireland and the poet; Aidan Ryan: how he climbed Knocknarea in Sligo while attending the Summer School; James Pethica: “Yeats, 1924: Politician–and Poet"; Anne Margaret Daniels: “Two Nobel Laureates: Yeats and Bob Dylan"; Susan Wands: “Yeats and Pamela Colman Smith: Golden Dawn Magicians and Artists.”

 

Fees: Entire program, including refreshments, lunch and the afternoon social is $39; morning or afternoon onlywith refreshments $20. Send a check to WB Yeats Society of NY, National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC 10003 with your name, address, phone number, email. Put the date on your calendar; your name will be on a registration list at the door. Fees are $5 more at door.

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Poet January O’Neil, 2024 Yeats Poetry Prize Judge, Publishes New Book of Poems

 

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Ms. O'Neil's new book of poems, Glitter Road, published by CavanKerry Press in late February, 2024, is in bookstores now.  “This collection reflects on loss and new love against the backdrop of a season I spent in Oxford, Mississippi.," says O'Neil. "While there, I was able to explore the history and legacy of Emmett Till, contemplating how his story is braided with mine, and how race binds us all together. These poems celebrate the vulnerability and resilience of womanhood, and reclaim life amid great transition through awakenings, landscapes, meanders, and possibilities."

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WB Yeats Society of NY

 

Objectives

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-To act as an educational forum, primarily through lectures and events, for exchanging information about William Butler Yeats, his legacy and literary work, and people, places, events, and ideas that shaped his life and work. 

-To stimulate awareness of and interest in WB Yeats's life and work.

-To provide information about Yeats events and organizations, particularly the Yeats International Summer School in Ireland and its sponsor, the Sligo-based Yeats Society, and other Yeats societies that, like ours, grew out of the summer school and Sligo society.

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Executive Board

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Andrew McGowan, President

​Alison Armstrong, Ph.D.

​Don Bates

Emily Dunlap

​Kate Gill

Doris Marie Meyer

Maureen O. Murphy, Ph.D.

Eddie Vega

Emeritus

John J. Casey, Ph.D.

Carolyn McGuire, Ph.D.

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