Bennett Nieberg
Transpoetic Broadside Prize
The Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize awards a single poem written by a trans poet who has yet to publish their first full-length book. The prize consists of $500 USD, 10 limited edition letterpress broadsides of the winning poem, and a feature in Gasher Journal.
Bennett Nieberg (they/them) was a queer Jewish emerging poet pursuing their MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University at the time of their passing in 2021. Their work appears in journals such as Crabfat Magazine, New Delta Review, The Indianapolis Review, Entropy, Permafrost, Western Humanities Review, Pretty Owl, and Lunch Ticket, among others. They were the editor in chief of the journal What Are Birds? which hosted the original Transpoetic Broadside Prize. Gasher Press honors Bennett’s legacy of social justice and commitment to the literary community with the continuation of the Transpoetic Prize.
Photo credit: Rachel Lowe Photography
2022 Winner
Leo Gabriel Miller
for the poem "buzz cut baptism"
Selected by final judge Kayleb Rae Candrilli
About the poem judge Kayleb Rae Candrilli wrote:
The poet behind this poem knows what it takes to find the breath to live. The lines of “Buzz Cut Baptism” are airy with careful caesura, yet heavy with images like “strangled with nylon”, and “summer sinks its teeth into us like ripe fruit”. In the world of this poem, and the world we live in, queerness is both pulpy and palpable, found in: ‘featherlight, dandelion fuzz, and gender unfurling like a fiddlehead.’ Poems like this, poets like this, are our only hope. This poet wrangles “the wasp’s nest on the veranda,” and fights for the vitality of every queer in the world.
Leo Gabriel Miller is a transmasculine youth poet and visual artist born and raised in Washington State. His work primarily deals with themes of gender, religion, familial relationships, and the intricate connections between the three. In addition to poetry, he does painting, printmaking, and ceramics, and plays guitar.
Finalist
E. Hughes - “Dyke Behavior”
Nico Wilkinson - “a spiritual experience, turned medical, becomes spiritual again”
Semifinalist
Dean Shinner - “Ruminations”
Brennan Bogert - “There are no women and there are no men”
Rachel Selby - “A letter regarding salamanders and the dispute over control of the inside of my mouth”
Dez Levier - “DEAD GIRL WALKING”
Ky Lohrenz - “Phantom Limb”
Paxton Grey - “sunlight falling across a void”
Suzannah “Su” Van Gelder - “breaking a thing”
Longlist
Skye Cowley - “Salinity”
Avery Yoder-Wells - “Thick of Things”
Sabrina Bank Joergensen - “Soiled Shoe, Her Saintly Attire”
BEE LB - “a body / a place / holding / no memory”
Leah Juliett - “SAINT SLUT”
Nicole McCaffety - “A Sky Like Yours”
Abigail Goodhart - “Cowboys”
G.J. Sanford - “Sestina with Marilyn’s gold pumps”
Annette Covrigaru - “Self Portrait as Top Surgery Scars”
Gabriel Noel - “ELEGY FOR MY DEADNAME (A PASTORAL)”
Eliot Cetta - "I Only Want to Stay for a New Reason"
Sage - "The Difference Between A Dream & Dreaming"
Scoot Swain - "Where in your body are you?"
Charlie Shaw - "survivor's guilt"
Cass Garison - "On Figure Drawing an Ex-Love