Narrative Poetry Award-Winning Books
In 2021, the Foundation established a poetry prize for books that represent the narrative poetry form that was Laura’s chosen style. The Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award is an annual manuscript competition. The winner will receive $5,000 and the publication of their manuscript by NYQ Books.
Terry Rae Hall is the author of the chapbook The Something We Make from Nothing. Other recent publication credits include Cider Press Review, San Pedro River Review, Pine Row Press, and Litmosphere.
Final judge Joe Weil said of Neither Are Crows:
“What I found triumphant about Neither Are Crows is the humility, accuracy, and sometimes gentle, sometimes dark humor of the poems. There is no showing off, yet there is subtle and constant trickery of the best sort. The poems remind me of the work of Robert Francis in their attention to detail and sound, though the world they describe is nothing like his rural Andover. The people and the landscape are one. They grow out of each other, out of flat lands and prairies. The book is held together by allusions to The Wizard of Oz, and that conceit is fully justified. Terry Rae Hall deals superbly with both the mythos and reality of her Midwestern landscape. Not a single poem in Neither Are Crows is unnecessary. Not a single poem fails to give pleasure.”
The winning poet of the 2024 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award is Suzanne Cleary for her manuscript, The Odds. The final judge was Jan Beatty.
The Odds was published in Spring 2025 by NYQ Books. This award included a $5,000 prize, 25 author copies, and a featured reading at the book’s release at The Poetry Center at PCCC in Paterson, New Jersey.
The Odds is available from Amazon and other online sources and bookstores.
Miriam Levine is the 2023 award winner. She is the author of five previous books of poetry and three books of prose. Her honors also include the Autumn House Poetry Prize. She is a fellow of the NEA, and a grantee of the Massachusetts Artists Foundation.
Levine is Professor Emerita at Framingham State University and lives in Florida and New Hampshire.
You may find more information about her work at miriamlevine.com.
