"America, One Year from Now" Awards
Kathy McGoldrick of Ellicottville, New York for “Hope”
Decades ago, McGoldrick received her MFA at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She then got married and divorced, and for a couple of decades raised two daughters alone, financing that endeavor with a career in social work administration. Although that period was fulfilling in its own right, it allowed little time to write. She has since retired, and now has time to write again. Her passion is weaving together concepts and images from the “natural” world with those of the social and political landscape.
Hayley Igarashi Thomas of New Market, Maryland for “No Land Is My Land”
Hayley Igarashi Thomas is a writer and unabashed idealist. Part of the California exodus, she now works remotely and is never going back to the office. Her work has been published by The New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Washington Writers’ Publishing House, PBS, Press 53, and others. She lives and writes near a small lake in Maryland with her dog, husband, and two young sons.
— FINALISTS —
Genie Abrams
Newburgh, New York
“My Predictions for 2026”
Adrianne Aron and Robert P. Thompson
Berkeley, California
“Twice-Told Tales”
Susan Baller-Shepard
Naples, Florida
“Should Your Son Run”
Renada Beckwith Bolden
Houston, Texas
“Collard Greens”
Andreea Ceplinschi
Provincetown, Massachusetts
“Reasons to Live”
Sean Sharkey Diaz
Norwalk, Connecticut
“Subhuman”
James Gibbs
New York, New York
“The Light Behind the Glass”
Sheryl Goodspeed
Mayer, Arizona
“When America Is Great Again”
Julie Landsman
Minneapolis, Minnesota
“Letter to Harry”
Rich Leonowitz
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“The Mites and the Cockroaches”
Clif Mason
Bellevue, Nebraska
“In the Coming Time of Monsters”
Jack McDaniel
Parker, Colorado
“End Of The Apocalypse”
Jed Myers
Seattle, Washington
“Mirror Prospects”
Rommy Nelson
Trabuco Canyon, California
“My Mother’s America”
Tony Peyser
Whitehouse Station, New Jersey
“March 31, 2026”
Bill Ratner
Los Angeles, California
“Thrusting into Reverence”
Laura Rose
Newtown, Pennsylvania
“America, Your Bullet Points Are Due”
M. Ricciardi
Seattle, Washington
“A Dream of Entangled Octopuses”
Laura Tupper
Becket, Massachusetts
“On Paper”
Lee Varon
Cambridge, Massachusetts
“Dear Poetry, Dear Crumbling Heart”