The editors of Gunpowder Press are excited to announce the winner and finalists for the 2026 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize. The Spacks Prize winner is Andy Chen for his collection Like a Golden Spike, forthcoming from Gunpowder Press.
“The things I steal are what I am,” Andy Chen writes in “Self-Portrait as Mural of the American
Frontier,” the opening poem in his debut collection, Like a Golden Spike. But the word could just as
well be “steel,” so powerfully built are these poems that examine the self and its relation to history
and, perhaps more importantly, family. Like steel, Chen’s poems bend when heat is applied, but they
do so only to take on even more wonderful and unexpected forms. Art, literature, racism, filial piety,
even basketball—there’s nothing Andy Chen’s poetry is afraid of addressing in mesmerizingly
memorable language.—David Starkey, Founding Editor
Andy Chen is a Taiwanese American poet and educator. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from Kundiman and the Bogliasco Foundation, he holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is the 2024 winner of the Ploughshares Emerging Writers’ Contest, and his poems appear in Poetry, Ploughshares, New England Review, The Offing, Split Lip, and elsewhere. To read more, visit heyandychen.com. This will be his debut book.
We received many excellent submissions, and noted nine manuscripts as finalists, including:
- Benjamin Aleshire, Poems for Bystanders
- Lucas Cardona, Brainland
- Kevin Clark, Rift
- Kathryn Jordan, Between Worlds
- April Linder, The Beating of Wings
- Linda Michel-Cassidy, You Own This Mess
- Michelle Patton, Horoscopes for Emergencies
- John Suwiecki, Atoms
- George Young, Notes from the Blue Dot
Thank you to all the poets who gave us the opportunity to consider your work. All manuscripts were given full consideration. We especially appreciate those who will be receiving a copy of the winning book once it has been printed. Congratulations, Andy!
