In the spring of 2026, The Orchard Street Press conducted its ninth annual Poetry Contest. Nearly eight hundred individual poems were submitted for consideration. 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 Prize ($700 and the Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize); “How the Forest Changes My Mind” by Tobi Alfier of Torrance, CA placing Second (($500); and “Ripples” from Bill Griffin of Elkin, NC earning Third ($300).
As has been the case from the start, this annual Poetry Contest drew some remarkable work from poets all across America. It is very rewarding for us to get to read all these fine new pieces. Thank you to everyone who entered. I also want to thank the judges who took on the daunting task od selecting the five percent of the poems that would make it into our annual journal. It was a challenging process indeed.
We would also like to announce that next year’s Contest, our tenth, will be a very special event, including significant increases in the cash award amounts ($1,000, $700, and $500), a larger edition of Quiet Diamonds (to include more poems than previous editions), and some glances back to the ten years of the Contest and Quiet Diamonds.
