It is our honor to announce the winner of the 11th Annual Coniston Prize: Nina C. Peláez. Here is what this year’s judge had to say about Nina’s poems:
“Is it possible to measure the half-life / of longing?” Intimate and raw reflections on loss and the body’s haunting memory unfold through poems that speak directly to the reader’s most vulnerable places. These poems explore the body’s terrain, caught between emptiness and possibility—between what we hold and what we surrender. From the tender touch of a midwife to the silent sorrow in a Planned Parenthood parking lot, the speaker moves through moments of grief, memory, and imagined futures, each one echoing with quiet pain and resilience. A daughter dreamed but never held, the lingering softness of an orange peel, the moon’s waxed curve in a dark sky: this poet reveals the fragile connections between the self and the world, between absence and desire. Here, past wounds remain tender, yet the speaker traces each scar with care, finding beauty in the hollow spaces they leave behind.
—January Gill O’Neil, Contest Judge
This time around, Coniston Prize submissions exceeded all expectations. If we had the time and personpower, we’d publish hundreds of poets from the summer submissions! Alas, we narrowed it down to 5 finalists and an additional 6 noteworthy poems to share alongside Nina’s winning entry.
We humbly thank the artists whose work is included in this issue. The beauty and power of their pieces amplify the poems with which they appear.
We invite everyone to join us for a virtual reading with Nina and our other finalists on Monday, October 21st at 7:00pm ET. Email radarpoetry (at) gmail (dot) com to RSVP and receive the Zoom link!
—Rachel Marie Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager, Editors
