We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Luminaire Poetry Award Winner and Finalists! From more than 400 poems of all types, lengths, styles, and genres submitted to Alternating Current Press for the poetry prize, we’ve narrowed the final round of reading down to this shortlist of finalists and selected a winner. Congrats to all of these authors, whose poems will be offered publication by Alternating Current Press and The Coil. The winner, Virginia LeBaron, receives $100 + publication for her poem about caregiving to a dying patient in a facility, and all finalists receive prizes and publication. Congrats to the winner and finalists!

Winner!

• “Patients I Cannot Forget: RB” by Virginia LeBaron

2nd Place

• “What Stays Behind” by Leonardo Chung

3rd Place

• “I Love a Man with Ancestors in His Drawl” by Lyn Patterson

4th Place

• “Georgette” by Benedicte Kusendila

5th Place

• “Cathartes Aura” by Kate Leboff

Finalists

• “The Coldest Winter of the Rest of Your Life” by J. Arliss
• “The Forever” by Eliza Fixler
• “Paris in a Vase” by Benedicte Kusendila
• “Patients I Cannot Forget: Sister Ford” by Virginia LeBaron
• “Patients I Cannot Forget: My Father” by Virginia LeBaron
• “Viridian Tchotchkes” by Kate Leboff
• “Currency” by Richard Stimac

Thanks to these authors for placing their incredible work in our hands. Congratulations to the winners and finalist selections, and we can’t wait to share your poems with our enthusiastic readers.

For the visually impaired or those using TTS reading aids: this is the end of the announcement.

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