CONGRATULATIONS TO MITCHELL JACOBS, WINNER OF THE PRUFER POETRY PRIZE!

Pleiades congratulates Mitchell Jacobs, winner of this year’s Prufer Poetry Prize, judged by Nicky Beer. He will receive an award of $1,000 and his winning poem, “At the Immersive Van Gogh Multimedia Projection Exhibit,” will be published in the Spring 2024 issue of Pleiades.

Mitchell Jacobs is a writer from Minnesota, with work in journals such as Black Warrior Review, the Massachusetts Review, Ploughshares, and the Southern Review, as well as on the Slowdown podcast. He is currently a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Southern California, where he serves as one of the editors at Ricochet Editions.

Of the winning poem, Nicky Beer writes:

“I’m compelled by the layers of this poem—how it manages to engage with the seduction of Van Gogh’s art and myth, as well as the seduction of their commercialization. And the way it interweaves the difficulty of familial love throughout offers the reader a complexity truly worthy of the painter.”

Devashi Khetarpal was named as Honorable Mention for the poem, “Diagnosis,” which will also be published in the Spring 2024 issue.

Pleiades would also like to recognize the finalists for the 2023 Prufer Poetry Prize:

Jordan Hamel, for “There is No Autumn in New Zealand”

Jennessa Hester, for “Self Portrait as Boy Scout Uniform”

Shannon Moran, for “Over Spring Break I Shave My Mother’s Head”

Lexi Pelle, for “Goods”

Pleiades thanks all those who submitted to this year’s award; we are grateful to have had the opportunity to read your work.

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