I am very happy to announce the tenth annual Orchard Street Press Poetry Contest, the return of an event that, in its first nine seasons, has produced some wonderful poetry and nine editions of Quiet Diamonds (QD), our annual journal that grows in reputation with each passing year. I am especially pleased to announce that the Contest entry fee remains at $15.
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).
The Orchard Street Press is very pleased to announce the release of Quiet Diamonds 2026, the ninth edition of our annual poetry journal composed of poems submitted to the 2026 Orchard Street Press Poetry Contest.
It’s the spring of 1962, and the world stands on the threshold of its own ‘coming of age.’ In McKinley Heights, Ohio (a semi-fictional suburb of Cleveland), people are preparing for the Sabin Oral Sundays polio vaccine program. Suddenly, late on a Monday afternoon just like any other, a local high school girl goes missing. Early in their investigation, the police are certain that she “must have known her abductor.” Terrified, the tight-knit community reacts.