Naugatuck River Review is delighted to announce the winners, finalists and semi-finalists in Naugatuck River Review’s 13th Annual Narrative Poetry Contest! This year’s final contest judge was Destiny O. Birdsong. All prize winners, finalists and semi-finalists will have their poems published in Naugatuck River Review’s Winter/Spring 2022 issue. The next submission period (no-fee open submissions) is January 1 – March 15, 2022. Congratulations to all!

First Prize: Kevin Neal, “Let the Bones Guide You”
Second Prize: Joanne Epp, “After Work”
Third Prize: Janet MacFadyen, “Petitions from the Alzheimer’s Ward”

Finalists:
Paul David Adkins: “Attica Prison Rebellion: September 13th, 1971: Melvin D. Gray”
Janlori Goldman, “At the Lake Where I Believed You Drowned”
Scott Hutchison, “Beach Outing”
Mani G. Iyer, “Letters from Bombay”
Howard Kogan, “Mourning Becomes Her”
J.A. Lagana, “Heart Failure and the Sugars”
Barbara LeMoine, “Primordial Forces”
Libby Maxey, “Memento Mori”
Jendi Reiter, “Jolly Rancher Girlfriend”
Annette Sisson, “December”
Stuart Silverman, “Elegy for a Dead Mule”
Kerry Trautman, “Three Swimsuits”
Pamela Wax, “Dear Fertility”
Richard Widerkehr, “What Happened”
Martin Willitts Jr., “The Straying”
Laura Budofsky Wisniewski, “The Fire”

Semi-Finalists:
Laura Bonazzoli, “Sunday Mass, Age Seven”
Beth Copeland, “Second Wife”
Margaret Dornaus, “First Sleepaway”
Don Hogle, “The Perseids”
Joshua Michael Stewart, “All This Living, All This Hurting”
James K. Zimmerman, “After Sasha Died”