CONTACT US

Contact Form

    News Details

    Claremont Graduate School names Tufts finalists for poetry’s biggest prize
    • March 14, 2026

    Would you like some poetry recommendations?

    This week, Claremont Graduate University announced the 2026 finalists for the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

    Awarded to mid-career poets, the Kingsley Tufts award is the largest annual cash prize for a single work of poetry, and previous winners include Ross Gay, Patricia Smith and Carl Phillips. The Discovery Award honors a poet’s first published book.

    SEE ALSOLike books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

    The finalists were chosen from nearly 400 books submitted this year. Winners will be announced at an event on March 28, 2026.

    Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Finalists

    • Jennifer Chang, “An Authentic Life” (Copper Canyon Books)

    • Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, “I Don’t Want to Be Understood” (Alice James Books)

    • Rosa Lane, “Called Back” (Tupelo Press)

    • Octavio Quintanilla, “The Book of Wounded Sparrows” (Texas A&M University Press)

    • Greg Rappleye, “Barley Child” (University of Arkansas Press)

    Kate Tufts Discovery Award Finalists

    • Chaun Ballard, “Second Nature” (BOA Editions)

    • Elly Bookman, “Love Sick Century” (42 Miles Press)

    • Steven Duong, “At the End of the World There is a Pond” (W.W. Norton)

    • Eduardo Martinez-Leyva, “Cowboy Park” (University of Wisconsin Press)

    • Stephanie Niu, “I Would Define the Sun: Poems” (Vanderbilt University Press)

    For more information, go to the Tufts Poetry Awards website.

    ​ Orange County Register 

    News