“Discovery” Poetry Contest Winners

Boston Review, in partnership with the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center, proudly presents the winners of the 2011 “Discovery” Poetry Contest, the Joan Leiman Jacobson Poetry Prizes. Now in its sixth decade, the contest recognizes and celebrates the achievements of poets who have not yet published a book. Many of the contest’s past winners—including Mary Jo Bang, Nick Flynn, Debora Greger, and Mark Strand—have gone on to distinguished writing careers. This year’s prize—judged by Cornelius Eady, Brenda Hillman, and D. A. Powell—elicited submissions from more than 800 poets. From this pool of entries, the judges selected the poetry of Ansel Elkins (Greensboro, NC), Angelo Nikolopoulos (New York, NY), Adam Roberts (Iowa City, IA), and Solmaz Sharif (Los Angeles, CA). In choosing this work, the judges cited its formal sophistication, tonal complexity, and especially engagement with political and social issues. The winners read from their poems at the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York on May 9, 2011.

—The Editors