I’m thrilled to be able to announce the result of the 2026 Stephen Dunn Prize for poetry. The winning poem is “eulogy through an unposted instagram statement,” by E’mon Lauren, chosen by this year’s poetry judge, Porsha Olayiwola. In making her selection, Porsha writes:
The “eulogy through an unposted instagram statement” showcased a remarkable command of the prose block. The poet uses the prose block with audacity, creating a current of thought that feels both relentless and intimate. Its associative leaps are not arbitrary. The reader is guided alongside an imagination that is both a train and a river: propelled by its own internal logic, flowing where it must regardless of the seemingly immovable ground beneath it. Each image opens into another. One of “eulogy through an unposted instagram statement‘s” greatest strength is that it positions itself as contemporary confessionalism. Here, Instagram and the page, become a site where vulnerability, honesty and the lyrical converge. What a welcome indeed.
She also chose “Evidence,” by Jennifer Phillips, as the runner-up in this year’s contest
Deepest gratitude to Porsha Olayiwola for being this year’s poetry judge, and many thanks to all who participated in the contest. We received an outstanding range of poems during the contest period, a testament to all of you across the breadth of the poetry community who are thinking deeply and observing keenly and writing with passion in these uncertain times. Please savor these wonderful poems.
On a more somber note, I’m stepping down from my position as poetry editor at Solstice. It’s been an extraordinarily rewarding experience for the past six years to engage with our writers and readers, and to encounter the undiscovered lyrical gems that often wash over the transom of our submission queue. I hope to remain engaged with the extended Solstice community, and I look forward to experiencing the work of a fresh editorial hand who can arrange a new chorus of dynamic diverse voices on these pages.
–Robbie Gamble
Robbie Gamble’s essays have appeared in Scoundrel Time, Pangyrus, Pithead Chapel, Under the Gum Tree and Tahoma Literary Review. He was a 2019 Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Summer Writers Workshop. He worked many years as a nurse practitioner caring for homeless people in Boston, and now divides his time between Massachusetts and Vermont.
