Calling all emerging poets! The 2024 Foster Poetry Prize is officially open for submissions!
The Foster Poetry Prize is open to emerging poets, which we classify as anyone who has not yet published a full-length collection of poetry (chapbooks are fine).
Click here to read our submission guidelines!
The winner of the 2023 Foster Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner — “Fundament” by Sasha Pickering
Honourable mentions go to:
Cicely Grace for “Buying a Pregnancy Test in October or Schrodinger’s Fetus”
Henry Heavyshield for “winter counting, an honour song for prairie allies”
Gwen Aube for “raised by wolves”
The winner of the 2022 Foster Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner — “The eldest” by Y.S. Lee
Honourable mentions go to:
Claire Matthews for “Aubade for My Hometown”
Moni Brar for “Remind Me One More Time”
Shannan Mann for “How We Are Like The Fungus In Love”
The winner of the 2021 Foster Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner — “Moving, Again” by Yilin Wang
Honourable mentions go to:
Rebecca Faulkner for “Brighton Beach”
Sneha Subramanian Kanta for “Witness”
Lucy Yang for “Spilled Water”
The winner of the 2020 Young Buck Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner — “fiera” by Amal Nura
Honourable mentions go to:
Evan J for “How to grow fennel”
Carolyn Nakagawa for “If not trees”
Tharuna Abbu for “Tether”
Joshua Wales for “Try this game at home”
The winner of the 2019 Young Buck Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner — “Parallel Volumes” by Jake Byrne
Honourable mentions go to:
Alycia Pirmohamed for “Burial Plot”
Harpreet Kang for “Dad Gave Me Poetry”
Allie Duff for “Necessary Sins”
Natasha Ramoutar for “Atlas of a Lost World”
The winner of the 2018 Young Buck Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner – “Garbage Takeout” by Joseph Kidney
Honourable mentions go to:
Chelsea Comeau for “BECAUSE YOU KNOW BIRDS’ MOUTHS ARE CLEAN”
David Janzen for “Mariposa (for Greg Curnoe)”
David Janzen for “One Year Old”
The winner of the 2017 Young Buck Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner — “Crystals” by Ellie Sawatzky
Honourable mentions go to:
“A Boat Is Not the Whole World” by Sarah Ens
“Glassblowing” by Emily Osborne
“Reconnaissance” by Andy Verboom
The prize-winning poems will appear in our Summer 2018 issue. Thank you to our wonderful judge Michael Prior and to everyone who submitted their work!
The winner of the 2016 Young Buck Poetry Prize:
First place and $1000 grand prize winner —“Not Yet In Season” by Mallory Tater
Honourable mentions go to:
Dominique Bernier-Cormier for “Camping at Fort Stevens”
Jessica Bebenek for “Hic lacet Sepultus”
The prize-winning poems will appear in our Summer 2017 issue. Thank you to our wonderful judge George Murray and to everyone who submitted their work!
The winner of the 2015 Young Buck Poetry Prize of $1000 is:
Doyali Islam
Honourable mentions go to:
Mallory Tater
Joel Vaughan
Dominique Bernier-Cormier
The prize-winning poems will appear in our Summer 2016 issue. Thank you to our wonderful judge Sara Peters and to everyone who submitted their work!
The winner of the 2014 Young Buck Poetry Prize of $1000 is:
Ruth Daniell for “Fire and Safety”
Honourable mentions go to:
Michelle Brown for “On Forgiving Myself for Not Becoming Famous”
Rebecca Salazar for “Bogotá, 1948”
Carter Vance for “The Way It Ends Up”
The judge also wanted to distinguish:
Steven Slowka for “Eastern Cougar”
Claire Kelly for “As if you steeped and drank these streets”
The winner of the 2013 Young Buck Poetry Prize of $1000 is:
Pamela Mosher for “Buoyancy”
Honourable mentions go to:
Emily McGiffin for “Accessory”
Trevor Graumann for “balsam”
Ruth Daniell for “Rapunzel”