Competitions / The Canto Poetry Prize / Winners

Monthly Contest Winners

Previous winners

We started our monthly contests in April 2026. Every month we'll publish the winning poem of the previous month's contest on Free the Verse. Read our past winners below.

Contests run
1
Awarded to poets
$100
Current open contests
2

All Contest Winners

Contest Winner
Eating Cats and Dogs — Kesper Wang
I look at my cat and wonder
If I’d eat him in case of some
apocalyptic event, or if he’d eat me
Read more ➜
Contest Winner
Safety First — Ping Yi Yee
Patent No. US3071856A protects the Safety Razor, property of one Irwin W. Fischbein of 18 Joyce Road, Hyde Park, Massachusetts.
Read more ➜
Contest Winner
After Rain — Madison Bertenshaw
I taste currents. Creosote, mud, agave, caliche, spines, javelina shit. You stab me like a cactus collecting the desert.
Read more ➜
Contest Winner
Anton in Summer — Natalie Susak
In class I learn the word for summer: ljeto. This summer: ljetos. This summer figs fall from trees
Read more ➜
Contest Winner
Aunty Nor — Farrah Lucia Jamaluddin
“If you are not a little bad from time to time
how can you learn to be a little good?”
Read more ➜
Contest Winner
A Wake — Keri Withington
I took the lake road home from the neurologist’s office.
    It’s pretty
    and I can’t
    deal with traffic
Read more ➜
Enter our current contest
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Submit your poem for the chance to win $100 and get your work published on Free the Verse.
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