2024 James Welch Prize

selected by Esther Belin

Winners

KATERI MENOMINEE: from a salt(less) sea to you: return

Kateri Menominee (Gnoozhekaning or Bay Mills Ojibwe) is an Indigenous poet from Bay Mills Michigan. Her chapbook, Effigies II, was published by Salt in 2014. A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, she is the first recipient of the M. Scott Momaday Award.

KARA BRIGGS: Acknowledgment Two

Kara Briggs is a Sauk-Suiattle citizen and direct Yakama descendant. Briggs was a career journalist and professional writer for many years and has returned to writing poetry through the MFA in Creative Writing at the Institute of American Indian Art. 

Download a printable digital broadside featuring the winning poems:

Finalists

MAX EARLY: The Stone Shaped by Song

MARY LEAUNA CHRISTENSEN: Ama/Agua

KINSALE DRAKE: First Date

MICHAEL WASSON: Murals Depicting a Lynching in a Courthouse to House the Idaho Legislature

CASANDRA LÓPEZ: I Try to Write About the Sea but Instead Write Another Dead Brother Poem

CHRIS HOSHNIC: Something is rotten in the state of Trust

MALIA MAXWELL:

IBE LIEBENBERG: quiet wolf

We are delighted to feature our 2024 James Welch Prize winners and finalists in our online folio. This PDF matches the layout and formatting as our print edition:

POEMS BY 2024 WINNERS & FINALISTS APPEAR IN THE SUMMER & FALL 2024 ISSUE.