2026 TCK Publishing Poetry Awards Contest Winners

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We’ve just wrapped up our sixth annual Poetry Awards Contest, and we’re so excited to announce the winner for 2026!

Why We Started This Poetry Awards Contest

We decided to host the poetry awards contest as a way to support and empower poetry writers everywhere, regardless of their experience or background. When I won my first poetry awards contest at age 13, it forever changed the course of my life. I might never have become a writer or founded TCK Publishing without that contest.

I hope the TCK Publishing Poetry Awards contest can inspire and support other writers to pursue their dreams regardless of age, background, or nationality. In addition to the recognition from this contest, the Grand Prize winner will also receive a $1,000 honorarium.

You don’t need a creative writing degree or a Pulitzer Prize under your belt to be a poet. Anyone can pick up a pen or keyboard and create poetry. That’s why we set out to make this contest as accessible as possible by making it international and maintaining a very low entry fee.

This year we had a remarkably talented pool of several hundred writers with so many outstanding poems to choose from. While it is always a challenge to choose just one winner, we couldn’t be happier with the excellent submissions we received.

2026 Poetry Awards Grand Prize Winner

We’re pleased to announce that the Grand Prize winner of the 2026 TCK Publishing Poetry Awards is…

Melody Dawkins

and below is their winning poem:

Superpower


We don’t have power
Not in a personal, societal, existential way
We don’t have electricity
Because of the behemoth
They built next to the river
At the center of the green earth


It feasts on electricity and water
And starves the rest of us
It’s a marauder, looking to slaughter


In the river
We don’t have any water
It is just a riverbed now
Deep and hollow


The birds that made it their home
On its little island
Are all silent
or gone, defiant
I am sure some are dead
Others gasping for air
With a final prayer


We don’t have any power
They said it will come back in an hour
Hopefully, the water, too, for a quick shower


I feel overpowered
By our lack of empowerment
But I don’t want to cower in the tower
of my convenienced disempowerment


I miss the flowers and the bowers
Soft summer showers, the quiet hours
All I can hear now is the growls
of the monster that devours
Everything that matters


I didn’t sign up for these masters
nor all these disasters
Maybe now we are ready
for the battles of our lifetimes
No commanders
Grassroots, wildcat, guerrilla
Vanguards at junkyards, unlikely lifeguards

Rising from the ashes of
What was supposed to be their graveyards


People over profiteer
Common human against machine
And all the inhumane men in between
The greed was so obscene
It’s too late now, do not intervene
It’s a war previously unseen
But definitely not unforeseen
This revolution will be onscreen
Are you ready to convene?


Close your eyes and imagine
We will again be green and serene
Surrounded by flowers and bowers
And we will have all the power
Not just for an hour
But this time for eternity
Exponentially, existentially
That will be our superpower

Honorable Mentions

We had so many amazing submissions this year! Below, we’re proud to announce the Honorable Mentions for 2026:

The Paved Path

By Mark Elliott

Laughter

By Jacque Fryday

Nothing Will Ever Be the Same

By Yulia Mikh

Inside Out

By Jan Horsburgh

What’s Next

The 2027 TCK Publishing Poetry Awards Contest is now open for early submissions.

If you’re interested in more posts about writing contests, then you might also like: