NEPC Prize Winners and Finalists Reading 2026

Watch this video to hear the NEPC 2026 Contest Winners and Finalists read their prize-winning work. 00:00 Welcome and Thank-Yous 01:46 Samuel Washington Allen Prize Description 02:15 Samuel Washington Allen Prize winner Carla Schwartz reads "Elegy Sequence for Charles Coe" 08:47 Amy Lowell Prize Description 09:11 Meredith Bergmann, Amy Lowell Prize Finalist, reads “Between Two Quarries” 11:11 Mary Christine Delea, Amy Lowell Prize Finalist reads “The Secrets in the Silence” 13:53 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize described 14:32 Finalist Mack Rogers reads a selection from his chapbook, Hindsight 19:53 Diana Der-Hovanessian Prize described 20:37 Finalist J. Kates reads "The Flute Player" 23:40 Finalist Tzivia Gover reads an excerpt from “Genesis 20: A Poetic and Restorative Translation” 28:02 EE Cummings Prize described 28:36 Cummings Prize Finalist Dolores Hayden reads “I Listen to Money Singing” 30:34 Washington Allen Prize Finalist Michelle Courtney Berry reads excerpts from “A Blues for Otis” 38:13 Pedrick Chapbook Prize finalist Evan Wang reads from "Slow Burn" 43:16 Sheila Margaret Motton Prize described 43:34 Motton Prize finalist Dzvinia Orlowsky reads from her book, "Those Absences Now Closest" 49:46 Lowell Prize finalist Robbie Gamble reads “The Mudroom of My Grieving” 52:15 Allen Prize finalist Carolyn Oliver reads an excerpt from “On Cenotaphs and Friendship: Notes Toward Quantum Elegy” 56:36 Der-Hovanessian Prize translation prize winner Jay Aelick reads "In My Niece's Garden" 58:55 Washington Allen Prize finalist Kim Sunee reads “What Omma Never Taught” 01:02:36 Cummings Prize finalist. Sonja Ringo reads “Places with Terrible Wi-fi” 01:05:01 Cummings Prize winner, Lee Pelletier reads "Chess" 01:06:23 Pedrick Prize winner Samaa Abdurraqib reads from her chapbook, Towards a Retreat 01:12:18 Lowell Prize winner Anastasia Vassos reads "Rough Marble" 01:16:48 Motton Prize winner V. Penelope Pelizzon reads from her book, A Gaze Hound that Hunteth by the Eye