This finalist for the New Poets Prize—also poet laureate for Hattiesburg, Mississippi—takes us on intricate tours of Saturday in a small town, the thin line between redemption and judgment, and how beauty and love unfold in everyday moments.
From a New Poets Prize finalist, four whirling lyrics on the body and mind.
Louisville poet Emma Aprile, winner of our inaugural Salvation South New Poets Prize, discusses her creative process, the landscapes that shape her work, and what it means to write from and for the South.
The winner of our first New Poets Prize gives us three big-hearted, sharp-minded poems on holding tight, oranges in winter, and discussing impossibilities with a child.
Kentucky poet Joy Priest shares, in this conversation with Chuck Reece, how writing became both her salvation and her rebellion.
From the nocturnal streets of Houston to the mythic fields of the Delta, Joy Priest’s poems bear witness to the moments that threaten to undo us—and the small, hard-won salvations that follow.
Three stark poems from the National Book Award-longlisted Texan Octavio Quintanilla, filled with longing, displacement, and the fragile beauty of human connection.
Octavio Quintanilla’s roots lie deep in both South Texas and Mexico. And his work dwells between worlds—geographic, cultural, and emotional.
South Carolina’s Marlinda Dekine testifies to fierce love—for the natural world, for self, and for a grandma’s lessons.
Edison Jennings finds decay, tragedy, and the haunting echoes of forgotten Appalachian lives in two vivid poems.
From nine different bars in Hixson, Tennessee, to his grandmother’s cotton field, Collier’s poems map the Southern geography of memory and belonging.
Han VanderHart’s visceral verses weave together memories of country living, intimate relationships, and the confounding complexities of identity in the American South.
The North Carolina poet Han VanderHart feels power in the places where the stories of Southerners intersect—and believes that, by telling them courageously, we help each other heal.
