The 2025 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest Results

The New Quarterly is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest!

Winner

“Holiday In France” by Callista Markotich

Runner-Up

“May Day Coronation, 1929” by Terence Young

Second Runner-Up

“Did You Know Our Mother Read to Us of You” by Callista Markotich

 

Honourable Mentions
(to be published alongside our winning poems)


“Quadri and Florian” by Richard Brait

 

“What Kurt Vonnegut Wrote…” by Richard Brait

 

“Initial Conditions” by Dagne Forrest

 

“Scattering My Father’s Ashes” by Susan Haldane

 

“Granada” by Nancy Holmes

 

“Varkala, Early Morning” by Sneha Madhavan-Reese

 

“Walking Past the Local Garage” by Rose Maloukis

 

“Love and War at Dieppe” by Callista Markotich

 

“When an Old Man Dies” by Anthony Purdy

We look forward to publishing these poems in our fall issue. 

Thank you to all of the wonderful poets who submitted.