POLY ETHNIC STUDIES MAJOR WINS ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS PRIZE TWO YEARS RUNNING

Zora Sowinska, a Cal Poly student majoring in Ethnic Studies and minoring in English, has won the Academy of American Poets Contest for a second year in a row. This year, she won for her poem “A foray into the state of orphanhood.” She will receive a $100 award from the Academy and will also be considered for the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award, which comes with a cash prize of $1,000 and publication in American Poets magazine.

Judge Jessica Smith had this to say of “A foray into the state of orphanhood”:

This poem has a striking ability to transform intimacy into landscape. Through meandering turns and surprising language, it explores loneliness, desire, displacement, identity, and the fear women learn early with tenderness and precision. The speaker moves through food, sense memory, anxiety, and love in ways that feel both deeply personal and immediately recognizable, crafting lines like “I die twice / trying to cross the street, but no worries.” Rich with unexpected similes such as “good big / and bland like fresh jicama” and cinematic detail, this work captures the strange beauty of becoming someone new while carrying every version of yourself at once.

Honorable mention goes to English major Diana Boboc for her poem “Bad Dogs Don’t Bark.” Smith noted how the poem “is visceral, using vivid imagery and sharp symbolism to explore repression, fear, and buried instinct. The poem is carefully crafted – packing dense, musical, violent imagery into one impactful stanza.”

Jessica Smith is the author of Lady Smith (University of Akron Press, 2025). Originally from Georgia, she is an Associate Professor of Practice at Texas Tech University, where she also directs the MFA in creative writing. Her poetry, essays, and criticism can be found in Prairie Schooner, The Cincinnati Review, Waxwing, 32 Poems, The Rumpus, and other journals. She received her MFA from The New School and is the recipient of support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Vermont Studio Center. 

The Cal Poly English Department and the Academy of American Poets, which is a longstanding advocate for the art of poetry and is located in New York City, sponsor the contest. The winning poem is available to read  here, and Sowinska’s “A Visit to Lisamu’” will also appear on the University & College Poetry Prize page of Poets.org.