2026 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest Winners

 

Helen Schaible was a poet, mother, teacher, classicist. The Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest was established in her memory in 1998 by the Poets Club of Chicago and funded by a gift from Helen’s daughters Jane Edwards, Lucy Parker, and Katherine Martin, and her son, the late David Schaible.

 

Traditional Sonnets
Judge: Marilyn L. Taylor (WI)

1st Place: Rebekah Danielson (AR), “Genesis”
2nd Place: Daniel Galef (OH), “Wald to the Survivors”
3rd Place: Kathleen McClung (CA), “The Pet Sitter Reaches for Thich Nhat Hanh”

1st Honorable Mention: Gail White (LA), “Prayers Like Incense”
2nd Honorable Mention: Bethany Bruno (AL), “The Wrong Miracle”
3rd Honorable Mention: Wilson R.M. Taylor (NY), “Lacuna”

Modern Sonnets
Judge: Carol Clark Williams (PA)

1st Place: Poonam Agale (CA), “Now that I hold a bird in my hands”
2nd Place: Tanner Robinson (SC), “Stardust in the Veins”
3rd Place: Cynthia Ventresca (DE), “Lost on Route 9”

1st Honorable Mention: Hridoy Kundu (NC), “What the Window Kept”
2nd Honorable Mention: Ben Hirschler (United Kingdom), “Unplugged”
3rd Honorable Mention: Daniel Galef (OH), “An Athenian girl on a ship en route to the Island of Knossos”