The results of the 2026 Rash Awards in Fiction and Poetry have been announced.
2026 Rash Award in Fiction
Judged by Silas House
Winner
Noah Davis, “Gall Bladder”
Honorable Mentions
Marco Recouso, “Leaving Hickory Flat”
Kendra Kvale, “Returning”
Other Finalists
George Bandy, “Caveat”
Nancy Brock, “Next Door”
Kendall Klym, “Myopic”
Timothy Lord, “One Night at 7th Street”
Ray Morrison, “Hardwood”
Alan Sincic, “Hide the Nitro”
John Thomson, “Of Light and Sound”
Mark Wagstaff, “A Message from Hecate”
2026 Rash Award in Poetry
Judged by Scott Owens
Winner
Ashley Seitz Kramer, “We’ll Get It Sorted”
Honorable Mentions
Michael Beadle, “Portrait of Elizabeth I As a Princess”
Dave Russo, “Flood Time in Ashe County”
Matthew J. Spireng, “Rorschach Test”
Other Finalists
George Bandy, “Self-Portrait”
Peter Bergquist, “Red Tide”
Sharon Charde, “Bright Sadness”
Shakira Croce, “Making Things the Way They Used To”
Michael Dowdy, “In the Vespertine Period”
Michael Galko, “Against the Day That Gary Snyder Passes”
Daniel Ginsburg, “Summer, 1976”
Patricia L. Hamilton, “Improvisation”
Peggy Heitmann, “Planting Fear”
J.C. Henderson, “The Weight a Man Carried”
Sophia Kaushik, “Requiem in Five Movements”
Gary Lark, “One Sunday”
Mark Madigan, “Moving to England”
Brittany Roeper, “In April, Nearly Summer”
Scott Ruescher, “A Dirge for Durgin”
Robert Shapiro, “Mekudeshet”
Maureen Sherbondy, “Why I Don’t Know the Names of Trees and Flowers”
Alan Sincic, “Where W.C. Fields Slept”
Annette Sisson, “Turning the Soil”
Jennifer Stewart, “Cambium”
Richard Stimac, “Patternmakers”
Sami H. Tripp, “Transplant”