Louisville poet Emma Aprile, winner of our inaugural Salvation South New Poets Prize, discusses her creative process, the landscapes that shape her work, and what it means to write from and for the South.

The winner of our first New Poets Prize gives us three big-hearted, sharp-minded poems on holding tight, oranges in winter, and discussing impossibilities with a child.

From the nocturnal streets of Houston to the mythic fields of the Delta, Joy Priest’s poems bear witness to the moments that threaten to undo us—and the small, hard-won salvations that follow.

Three stark poems from the National Book Award-longlisted Texan Octavio Quintanilla, filled with longing, displacement, and the fragile beauty of human connection.

Octavio Quintanilla’s roots lie deep in both South Texas and Mexico. And his work dwells between worlds—geographic, cultural, and emotional.

South Carolina’s Marlinda Dekine testifies to fierce love—for the natural world, for self, and for a grandma’s lessons.

Edison Jennings finds decay, tragedy, and the haunting echoes of forgotten Appalachian lives in two vivid poems.

From nine different bars in Hixson, Tennessee, to his grandmother’s cotton field, Collier’s poems map the Southern geography of memory and belonging.

Han VanderHart’s visceral verses weave together memories of country living, intimate relationships, and the confounding complexities of identity in the American South.

These three poems excerpted from “Scorched Earth” reckon with a mother’s face, the devil’s music, and what miracles can happen on a plain day.

In the natural world, one thing always leads to another.

From Nashville to national acclaim, Tiana Clark’s poetry challenges readers to embrace the fullness of Black experience and the radical act of rest.