The LemonLight Prize
The winner and four honorable mentions of the LemonLight Prize 2026 have been named. Dawn McGuire wins for her poem Mule, selected by Leila Chatti from a shortlist of 51 poets drawn from 706 entries across eight countries. The 250-copy anthology sold out six weeks before printing; it mails in September.
Mule
Selected by Leila Chatti from a shortlist of 51 poets. Judged blind.
The Fifty-One
Poets writing from New Delhi to Ta Ta Creek, from Twisp to East Sussex, from Toronto to Wagga Wagga. Fifty-one voices, one anthology.
Faiz Ahmad·Ellery Akers·Carlos Andrés Gómez
Subhaga Crystal Bacon·Alexandra Dawson·Sivani Howe
Caroline Mellor·Estill Pollock·Cara Waterfall
Our Open Reading Is Now Open
We read full manuscripts and poetry selections year-round. If you have a collection ready — or a body of work that needs a home — we want to read it. Every poet we have published came through our open reading.
Submit a ManuscriptReading your work
Leila Chatti
Final Judge · 2026Author of Deluge (Copper Canyon Press), Leila Chatti is one of the most acclaimed poets of her generation — a Tunisian-American writer whose work has reshaped contemporary poetry's reach into the lyric, the sacred, and the body.
Winner of the Levis Reading Prize · Luschei Prize for African Poetry · the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award · fellowships from the NEA, Stanford, and Tin House. MFA faculty, Pacific University.
What Winners Receive
Winner
$2,000 + Publication- Honorarium — $2,000
- Featured placement in the anthology
- 3 complimentary copies
- Long-form interview on The Ink Well
Honorable Mentions × 4
$250 each, + Publication- Honorarium — $250 per poet
- Featured in the anthology
- 2 complimentary copies
- Featured interview
Anthology Selections
51 Poets Published- One poem per shortlisted poet
- Published in the anthology
- 1 complimentary copy
- Press notes & readings
Judging Timeline
Shortlist
Fifty-one poets selected for the shortlist and confirmed as the anthology roster. View the shortlist →
AnnouncedWinner & HMs
Dawn McGuire wins for Mule. Four honorable mentions named. Read the announcement →
AnnouncedAnthology Mailed
The LemonLight Prize 2026 Anthology is printed and mailed to all recipients.
What We Look For
Poems that earn their difficulty. Work that trusts the reader to follow it into the territory it actually wants to explore — grief, longing, faith, the body, the political, the everyday.
We do not have a preferred form, length, or aesthetic. Free verse, formal verse, hybrid, sequence, single lyric — all welcome. Strong craft and a clear voice matter more than any school or style.
The 2027 prize opens in spring. Join the Ink Well to be notified when submissions open.
The LemonLight Prize
The 2026 prize is closed and the anthology is sold out. In the meantime, our open reading accepts full manuscripts and poetry selections year-round. Every poet we have published came through the open reading.
Why “LemonLight”?
The name comes from G. K. Allum's poem Middlesex, where the image catches the fragile hour between what was and what might be — half dawn, half memory.
It became a symbol for the press itself: the longing inside all art, the desire to preserve what's passing while still reaching for transformation. The prize honors poets who write from that threshold.