Time to see who made the cut.

After an arduous judging process, we’ve got out Top 10 locked in. A very special thanks to the brilliant Mary Lenoir Bond who served as primary judge and made the tough calls. With such an impressive crop of dark and offbeat poetry, selecting winners is never easy. You took us to strange and surreal places with these poems, and we hope that the entries that didn’t make it into the Top 10 will find good homes. 

But you didn’t come here for me to go on and on. Let’s get to the goods.

Below you’ll find our short list. The following poets submitted entries that made it through several rounds of cuts, but didn’t quite squeak into the Top 10. 

Close-but-no-cigar short list shout-outs go to:

Stuart Airey
Kyrie Amos
Jonathan Bennett
Henri Bensussen
Zoe Canner
Alan Catlin
Jacob Chapman
F.E. Clark
John Cornelius
Rachel Creager Ireland
Mary D’Alleva
Dan Diehn
Ann DeVilbiss
Stephanie Ellis
Chris Fox
Susan Adler George
Erich Gerner
Christopher Goldsmith
Donna Greenwood
Anastasia Hinojosa
Russell Jackson
Shawn Klimek
J. J. Krill
Egon Lass
Gayle Lauradunn
Laura Lucas
Jen OConnor
Ken Poyner
Brett Roth
Allen Shadow (2)
Roni Slye
Dana Stamps, II
Corinne Stanley
Andrew Sutherland
Lazar Trubman
Kaleb Tutt
Lisa Werhan

The Top 10 that you’ll find below will be published in our forthcoming Shadow Award 2018 poetry mega-issue, which will run within the next couple of days. They will also be included in this fall’s fourth-annual Prize Winners Anthology print issue, which will feature the Top 10 finishers from our quarterly flash fiction contests as well. You can check out last year’s Prize Winners Anthology here.

10th Place – “Instructions for Finding a Lover” by David Gustavsen

9th Place – “Pond” by Alexander Lempke

8th Place – “All These Little Remonstrations” by Aurore Sibley

7th Place – “Crow Girl” by Erinn Batykefer

6th Place – “Necromancy” by Jennifer Wilson

5th Place – “Scarecrow” by December Lace

4th Place – “The Face in the Sea” by Liz Nakazawa

And now for those poems that really made us happy.

3rd Place ($50)

“Immersion Learning at the Museum”
by Laura J. Bobrow

2nd Place ($100)

“The Madwoman Who Called on My Wedding Day”

by Con Chapman

1st Place ($200)

“Lake Wife”

by Mary Haidri

Congrats to the winners, and a huge thanks to everyone who participated!
Check back soon for the Shadow Award 2018 mega-issue.