News and updates:

The results are in! Over the next couple days LOA will release the winners and runners up of the four different categories of the 2026 Wright Prize! “An Ode” by J. Raymond Bennett won the Poetry by a Veteran award. Of Bennett’s piece guest judge Jackie Spinner said, “The moral complexity of this poem makes it stand out. The repeated “I see you” becomes increasingly complicated until the final turn: “But we are devils watching devils, / and so I pull the trigger anyway.” That ending forces the reader to hold two seemingly contradictory truths at once: the speaker sees the humanity of the person he is killing, but he is still at war with him. This is simply a powerful and beautifully controlled poem that finds the humanity of an enemy without diminishing the reality of war. In second place, “A Stone Meant for Il Duce” by Allison Whittenberg. And in third place is “Hot Girl Radio” by Jillian Hahn. Congrats to all of you!