The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program is proud to announce the winner of the 8th Annual Cantor Prize for Poetry: Alicia Rebecca Myers for her poem, “On the Anniversary of My Due Date, You Ask to Braid My Hair”.
“The poem gifts us the pure crystal moment of the present – shining Arcturus, the hands fumbling in the hair – but also hurtles us backward to the speaker’s childhood and beyond to Basho’s existential moment in Kyoto, while also hurtling us forward, where the once messy child is now a man, hopefully doing his own laundry, and the speaker faces a sky at once familiar and yet forever changed,” noted Cantor Judge Tony Alcántara in selecting the 2025 Cantor Prize winner. “And all of these distinct time elements play out simultaneously against the backdrop of the seemingly infinitely aged stars.”
Myers holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University, where she was a Goldwater Writing Fellow and studied with poets Sharon Olds and Kimiko Hahn. Her poems have appeared in places that include Best New Poets (three times), FIELD, Gulf Coast, SWWIM, december, and Rattle. Her chapbook of poems, My Seaborgium (Brain Mill Press, 2015), was winner of the inaugural Mineral Point Chapbook Series. Most recently, her poem “Porcelain God” was selected by Maya C. Popa as third place winner in the 2024 Ledbury Poetry Competition, and she was a finalist for the 2025 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize (Passages North).
She has been the recipient of a Kimmel Harding Nelson residency for poetry and a Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference nonfiction scholarship, and she has published poems most recently in River Styx and Raleigh Review. Her first full-length manuscript, Warble, was a finalist for both the 2023 Akron Poetry Prize and the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award, and it was chosen by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg as winner of the 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize (Meadowlark Press).
She lives with her husband and eleven-year-old son in Fruita (Colorado) where she helps high school seniors write their college application essays.
She receives a $1000 cash award, click here to read her winning poem, On the Anniversary of My Due Date, You Ask to Braid My Hair.
Five Outstanding finalists will get $250 each, starting with Josie Jones of Lakewood (Colorado) for “Perfect Mud,” which first appeared in Mississippi Review (Summer2025), Dan Rosenberg also of Fruita for “The Covenant,” Brenda Wildrick of Fort Morgan (Colorado) for “Final Episode of the Final Season (A Sestina),” Joy Roulier Sawyer of Denver for “Tomato,” and Eliana Lambros of Missoula (Montana) for “Cavity” – for the first time an outstanding finalist in both the Fischer and the Cantor Prize contests. And in another first, Alicia Rebecca Myers and Dan Rosenberg are husband and wife.
Honorable Mentions for the Cantor Prize go this year to Kelly Vande Plasse of Fort Collins (Colorado) for “Riding the Elephant,” Moudi Sbeity of Boulder (Colorado) for “The Happiness Carousel,” Heather Gardner of Louisville (Colorado) for “Aubade for 5 am,” Lorrie Wolfe also of Fort Collins for “Why I Go Fishing,” Jackie St. Joan for “How I Met Art Goodtimes,” Ruth Duffy for “Become the Bear,” Mike Olschewsky for “Plan B,” and Mari Boyd for “on the interstate between wherever I was and wherever i’m supposed to be now.” Ruth and Mike are also husband and wife.
This, the award’s 8th year, saw 146 entries from 108 poets mostly from Colorado. But also included in the contest were poems about Colorado from poets in California, Montana, Virginia, Indiana, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Arkansas, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, and even an entry from Tzafon, Israel.
Preliminary judge this year was Talking Gourds Director Art Goodtimes of Wrights Mesa and final judge was José “Tony” Alcántara of Aspen (both of Colorado).
The Cantor Prize is awarded annually to poets writing on any subject who hail from the Centennial State or from poets around the country (or around the world) writing in English about Colorado. Past Cantor winners (all from Colorado) include Jane Hilberry of Colorado Springs, Renee Podunovich of Dolores, Mark Oreskovich of Pueblo, Madison Gill Silva of Montrose, Wendy Videlock of Grand Junction, Jacob Sheetz-Willard of Leadville and Benny Manibog of Denver.
“Our poetry contests are the primary way poets can help us support the many poetry projects we do on Colorado’s Western Slope,” noted Goodtimes. “Plus, there’s the bonus that one might also win a prize. We offer feedback on submissions, if desired.”
We are especially indebted to the late Elaine Fischer, Sheldon Cantor and the Cantor Family for their support of these awards over years.
For more information on the Talking Gourds Poetry Program and its international Fischer and state Cantor poetry contests, visit <tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds>
