After over four thousand submissions from over a thousand writers and months of deliberation, we’re thrilled and humbled to announce the winners and finalists of the first annual Winter Tangerine Awards, selected by poetry judge Ocean Vuong and prose judge Jaquira Diaz. 

Since its creation, Winter Tangerine has been committed to encouraging the confluence of the beautiful and the jarring, to supporting and promoting the electric voices of emerging writers. The Awards were created with the intention of furthering this goal by sharing the work of emerging writers whose work touched us, bruised us, and connected us, as writers, and as people. In line with Winter Tangerine’s original foundation, all entries were read without identifying information by both Winter Tangerine’s staff and our wonderful guest judges. 

In our commitment to promoting emerging voices, we are proud to announce that all of Winter Tangerine’s content from now on will be entirely free and online. Selected poems from the Awards will be published in the first online issue of Winter Tangerine, forthcoming this winter. 

Finally, thank you to every writer who entered the Winter Tangerine Awards. We are so honored and so proud to present these winners to you.

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WINNER OF THE FIRST ANNUAL WINTER TANGERINE AWARD IN POETRY

Aziza Barnes, MY DAD ASKS, “HOW COME BLACK FOLKS CAN’T JUST WRITE ABOUT FLOWERS

 

RUNNER UP

Philip Schaefer, Kismet

FINALISTS

Lucia Lotempio, The Ladybug Attempts to Establish an Inventory of Bodies

Katherine Frain, Prayer For St. Clare

Tariq Luthun, Dance

Lucy Wainger, What Remains of November

Sarah Maria Medina, Hush The Young Coahuila Sons

Mariel Alonzo, On Poultry and Poinsettia

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WINNER OF THE FIRST ANNUAL WINTER TANGERINE AWARD IN PROSE

Molly McGinnis, Guns In The House

RUNNER UP

Greta Wilensky, Nobody, Everybody

FINALISTS

Shira Erlichman, In the Summer of Erica

Keely Shinners, Santiago, Going, Gone

Shira Erlichman, In A Flash

A hearty congratulations to the winners and finalists! 

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Artwork featured is "Visible" by Tianjiao Wang, published in Volume 4 of WT