In the spring of 2026, The Orchard Street Press conducted its ninth annual Poetry Contest. Nearly eight-hundred individual poems were submitted for consideration by poets from thirty-eight states. Of those, forty-two were selected for inclusion in Quiet Diamonds 2026. Three were chosen for the Contest’s cash awards. They are: “Foundry” by Jennifer Phillips of Barnstable, MA taking First Place, (winning the 2026 Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize); “How the Forest Changes My Mind” by Tobi Alfier of Torrance, CA earning Second Place; and “Ripples” by Bill Griffin of Elkin, NC winning Third.
Last year, we had another excellent response to our annual Poetry Contest, with over eight hundred poems submitted. Fifty of those poems were selected for inclusion in Quiet Diamonds 2025, creating a truly excellent annual journal (available for order both via the mail and online at this site).
This spring, Orchard Street conducted its seventh annual Poetry Contest. Approximately 800 poems were received from writers in 42 states.
From those submissions, 40 poems were selected for inclusion in Quiet Diamonds 2024; three for cash awards, including the 2024 winner of our Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize: Lew Forester’s captivating “Moonlight and Ashes.” With this, Mr. Forester becomes the first poet to receive a second Malovrh-Fenlon Prize.
In the spring of 2023, The Orchard Street Press conducted its sixth annual Poetry Contest. Approximately 700 poems were sent by writers from forty states.
In the spring of 2022, The Orchard Street Press conducted its fifth annual Poetry Contest, an event that has grown with each passing year. The Press received entries from 37 states, almost 700 poems in all.
We were delighted with the participation in this year’s Poetry Contest; more than six hundred poems were submitted by entrants from forty different states, with the quality of the submissions bringing no easy task to the judges. We want to thank all those who sent in work and who are keeping the poetic energy and creativity at a very high level across the land.
We were delighted with the response to this year’s Orchard Street Press Poetry Contest. We received entries from all across the country, presenting an amazing array of styles, voices, themes,perspectives, and ‘make it new’ artistry. This year’s edition of Quiet Diamonds (due out in September) will be a remarkable collection indeed.
