The Julie Suk Award has reopened submissions for its next competition, shortly after Nigerian poet Rasaq Malik Gbolahan’s The Origin of Wounds was named a co-winner of the 2025 award. Published by Anhinga Press, Gbolahan’s debut collection shares the prize with Arah Ko’s Brine Orchid, published by YesYes Books. The two books were selected by Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina’s Poet Laureate and the final judge for the award.

The Origin of Wounds captures the place beyond mourning and explores the relationship between personal grief and the larger histories that shape human experience. In her citation, Green described the collection as bringing readers “to a global precipice” where everyday intimacy meets “history, war, space, and time.” The poems move through memory, identity, resistance, violence, and love, presenting vulnerability not as weakness but as a possible form of power.

The Julie Suk Award, administered by Jacar Press, recognizes the best poetry book published by a small, literary, or university press. The newly opened competition is for books carrying a 2026 copyright date, and books published by commercial presses are not eligible. Entries will be accepted until February 7, 2027, with final decisions expected in March or April 2027.

Writers outside the United States may submit PDFs by email to jacarpress@gmail.com. Finalists will subsequently be asked to submit two physical copies of their books. The competition also requires entrants to mail two copies of their 2026-copyrighted book along with a $10 entry fee.

Gbolahan’s co-win adds a recent African literary milestone to the award’s history. The Origin of Wounds joins a body of poetry recognized by the Julie Suk Award for its engagement with questions of memory, identity, grief, and human experience, while its recognition alongside Ko’s Brine Orchid marks the latest edition of an award open to poetry published through the independent and literary press ecosystem.

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