2025 James Welch Prize

Winners

DESIREÉ BEWLEY DALLAGIACOMO: Blood Quantum Pastoral

Desirée Bewley Dallagiacomo is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Michigan, and she founded The Heart of It, a poetry-centered retreat for writers of marginalized genders. 

CHRIS HOSHNIC: Pastoral Prayer as a Genre at the Kayenta Shopping Center

Chris Hoshnic is a Navajo language advocate, poet, and filmmaker. He is currently an MFA Candidate at the Institute of American Indian Arts. 

Download a printable digital broadside featuring the winning poems:

Finalists

DANIELLE SHANDIIN EMERSON: Love poem to Juniper of my youth

MICHAELSUN STONESWEAT KNAPP: It’s a Baby’s Cry the Sound a Star Opens

IBE LIEBENBERG: chickasaw love poem

NOELANI PITERS: In the Sense of Island

DELANEY R. OLMO: Quail Inheritance

We are delighted to feature our 2025 James Welch Prize winners and finalists in our online folio. This PDF matches the layout and formatting as our print edition:

POEMS BY 2025 WINNERS & FINALISTS APPEAR IN THE SUMMER & FALL 2025 ISSUE.