The 2024 William Matthews Poetry Prize Winners, selected by David Kirby
The editors of Asheville Poetry Review are pleased to announce the WILLIAM MATTHEWS POETRY PRIZE RECIPIENTS for 2024.
First Prize
Mary Makofske, from Warwick, NY, is awarded first prize for her poem, “Sex, That Peacock,” and will receive $1000, plus publication in The Asheville Poetry Review (Vol. 31, Issue 33, 2024), which will be released in December 2024.
Second Prize
Second prize is awarded to Paul Alexander, from Forest Hills, NY, for his poem, “Only in Darkness Can You See the Stars” He will receive $250, as well as publication.
Third Prize
Craig Van Rooyen resides on the central coast of CA. He is the third prize recipient for his poem “Daylight Savings Poem,” and he will also be published in our next issue.
Mary Makofske’s latest books are No Angels (Kelsay, 2023), The Gambler’s Daughter (The Orchard Street Press, 2022); World Enough, and Time (Kelsay, 2017); and Traction (Ashland, 2011), winner of the Richard Snyder Prize. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Asheville Poetry Review, Poetry, Poetry East, American Journal of Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Comstock Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. She has received the Slant Hudson-Fowler Prize, and first prizes in poetry from Atlanta Review, New Millennium Writings, and the Littoral Press Broadside Contest. www.marymakofske.com
Paul Alexander is the author of Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday’s Last Year, published in 2024 by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canongate in the U.K. Among his previous books are Rough Magic, a biography of Sylvia Plath, and Salinger, a biography of J.D. Salinger that was the basis of a feature documentary that appeared on American Masters on PBS, Netflix, and HBO. He has written for a number of publications, including The New York Times, New York, The Nation, and The Washington Post, where he is a regular book critic. His poetry has appeared in The New Republic, Poetry, The Sewanee Review, Southern Poetry Review, Poem, Mississippi Review, The Black Warrior Review, Connecticut River Review, The Bennington Review, and The Gay and Lesbian Review. He teaches at Hunter College.
Craig Van Rooyen is a poet and a judge, living on the Central Coast of California. His poems have been published in 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets, Cincinnati Review, Narrative, New Ohio Review, Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. He is a past winner of the Rattle Poetry Prize and the Neil Postman Award. He received an MFA from Pacific University.
The next reading period for the William Matthews Poetry Prize is from September 15, 2024 – January 15, 2025.
The final judge will be Nickole Brown. For the guidelines and more, visit ashevillepoetryreview.submittable.com.
The 2025 William Matthews Poetry Prize
First Prize: $1,000, publication in Asheville Poetry Review, and a featured reading in Asheville
Second Prize: $250, publication, and a featured reading in Asheville
Third Prize: Publication and a featured reading in Asheville
Judge for 2025: Nickole Brown
The final judge will read anonymous manuscripts (all identifying information will be removed from the poems).
All submissions will be considered for publication. Submission Deadline: January 15 of each year. Send 1-3 poems, any style, any theme, any length, with a $20 entry fee.
Online submissions only, through Submittable:
*Poetry email submissions are not accepted
Previous Prize Winners
Winners of the 2024 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Mary Makofske, “Sex, That Peacock”
Second Place: Paul Alexander, “Only in Darkness Can You See the Stars”
Third Place: Craig Van Rooyen, “Daylight Savings Poem”
(Judge: David Kirby)
Winners of the 2023 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Kate DeLay, “Repentance”
Second Place: Rodney Gomez, “Tableau With Tarantella, Public Housing, and Underwood Ham”
Third Place: Jeanne Wagner, “Penelope”
(Judge: Diane Seuss)
Winners of the 2022 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Maura High, “Verbesina Occidentalis”
Second Place: Christina Hutchins, “Meeting Memory on the Mendocino Coast”
Third Place: Anna Lena Phillips Bell, “Scissors”
(Judge: Marilyn Nelson)
Winners of the 2021 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Sean Webb, “American Genesis”
Second Place: Annie Woodford, “An Aunt Story, Improvised as a Blues Line”
Third Place: Earl Sherman Braggs, “Still Life”
(Judge: Quincy Troupe)
Winners of the 2020 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Denver Butson, “Study Guide”
Second Place: Melanie Tafejian, “On Occupation”
Third Place: Mark Kyungsoo Bias, “How God Breaks”
(Judge: Ilya Kaminsky)
Winners of the 2019 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Jude Nutter, “The Lions of Chauvet”
Second Place: Sarah Rose Nordgren, “Blessing”
Third Place: Joshua Martin, “Approaching My Brother, I Think of Karl Wallenda”
(Judge: Dorianne Laux)
Winners of the 2018 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Rosa Lane, “The Long Meadow”
Second Place: Kathleen Spivack, “M. Caillebotte Paints Mme. Boissiere Knitting”
Third Place: Mary B. Moore, “Quaking Grass”
(Judge: Alfred Corn)
Winners of the 2017 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Jared Harél, “You Want It Darker”
Second Place: Sarah Gordon, “The Last American Tour, 1953”
Third Place: Chelsea Woodard, “Wren’s Nest”
(Judge: Cornelius Eady)
Winners of the 2016 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Marilee Richards, “The Double Zero”
Second Place: Anne Valley-Fox, “To Love India”
Third Place: Catherine Carter, “First Witch”
(Judge: Joy Harjo)
Winners of the 2015 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Matthew Wimberley, “All the Great Territories”
Second Place: Patrick Swaney, “Late Fall, Late Afternoon”
Third Place: Debbie Benson, “Papanasam”
(Judge: Garrett Hongo)
Winners of the 2014 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Bruce Sager, “The Lot of Stars”
Second Place: T. J. Sandella, “Flight”
Third Place: Dave Seter, “What My Uncle is Trying to Say”
(Judge: Billy Collins)
Winners of the 2013 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Bart Rawlinson, “Jonah and Mr. Bones”
Second Place: Shelley Puhak, “On High School Reunions and Hurricane Agnes”
Third Place: David Brendan Hopes, “Spade”
(Judge: Patricia Smith)
Winners of the 2012 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Becky Gould Gibson, “Heading Home”
Second Place: Catherine Carter, “The Young”
Third Place: Angela Kelly, “time, and a little honey”
(Judge: David Wagoner)
Winners of the 2011 William Matthews Prize
First Place: Michael White, “The Milkmaid”
Second Place: Bruce Bond, “Jon Faddis and the High Note”
Third Place: Mary Makofske, “Museum of Torture, San Gimignano, Italy”
(Judge: Sebastian Matthews)
