Sugar on the Floor, by poet and librettist Susan Gubernat, is the winner of the 2026 John Ridland Poetry Prize, forthcoming from Gunpowder Press. Of the winning collection, publisher David Starkey writes:
At times I’m reminded of the enigmatic storytelling of Louise Glück, at others you can hear Susan Gubernat, as she puts it, “in the soup with Sexton and Plath.” But always her intelligence shines through, and her exquisite ear for music, along with her unparalleled gift for selecting just the right image, make each poem a deeply satisfying adventure. Sugar on the Floor shows this already accomplished poet scaling new heights: it’s a collection not to be missed.
Susan Gubernat is the author of The Zoo at Night which won the Raz-Shumaker poetry book prize (University of Nebraska Press), Analog House (Finishing Line Press), and Flesh, which won the Marianne Moore Prize (Helicon Nine Editions). Her poems have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle as well as the Anacapa Review, Cimarron Review, Crab Orchard Review, Gargoyle, The Hudson Review, Michigan Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and other journals and anthologies. She wrote the libretto for the three-act opera “Korczak’s Orphans” with composer Adam Silverman. Their latest collaboration, the song cycle “Elegy for the Earth,” was recently released on the label New Focus Recordings. She has been awarded multiple residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, the Millay Colony, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and received artist fellowships from the states of New Jersey and New York. She holds an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is Professor Emerita of English at California State University, East Bay, CA. Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, she now lives in San Francisco.
The editors also recognize the following finalists and semi-finalists, with appreciation for all the poets for the opportunity to consider their work:
Finalists:
Estuarine by John Isles
The Wounded King Takes a Knee by Ed McManis
Heart/Lands by Jennifer M. Phillips
Semi-Finalists:
Theology with Whales by Susan Cohen
Miracle Soap by Edison Dupree
In the Shade of Tall Women by Judy Ireland
Gathering Marbles by Tricia Knoll
Scientists Confirm by Jill McCabe Johnson
Crossing a Threshold Into the Marriage of Our Two Selves by Robin Michel
Humor Me by Richard Terrill
