Congratulations to Carla Schwartz, member of the Poetry Society of Vermont and the New England Poetry Club. Carla is also a regular attendee of the monthly PSOV Online Poetry Group meetings.

The New England Poetry Club is proud to announce the results of our 2026 contests! Samuel Washington Allen Prize, selected by Kirun Kapur Winner: Carla Schwartz, “Elegy Sequence for Charles Coe”
NEPC will host an online winners/finalists reading on Sunday afternoon, October 18, beginning at 2:00 pm EST. Here is the registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/rGMNpY7nQBOav_FitfD77g and a recording of this reading will be uploaded to the NEPC’s youtube channel.

I wrote these poems after the loss of my dear friend Charles Coe. Our friendship meant a lot to me so I was writing quite a few poems soon after his passing and for the next months going. It only occurred to me as I was making some submissions to the New England poetry club contests that I could use these poems as an eight-poem sequence for the Samuel Washington Allen Prize submission. I was so honored and surprised when they notified me that I had won. ~ Carla Schwartz

The Samuel Washington Allen Prize is awarded to a long poem or poem sequence of three to ten pages (single-spaced). This prize honors the legacy of the African-American poet, translator, professor, and former New England Poetry Club leader, Samuel Washington Allen, who also published as Paul Vesey.