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Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas has announced the winners of its 2026 Pat Laster Collegiate Poetry Contest, with three of the six students reading their winning poems at the organization’s annual Dr. Lily Peter Spring Celebration in April.
The contest is named in honor of PRA member Pat Laster and sponsored by PRA member Lydia Cheatham. PRA member Joan Barrett Roberts served as judge.
Norman (Kyler) Like took first place and a $500 prize for his poem “I’m a Foxtail.” A graduate of Quitman High School, Like is working toward a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education at the University of Central Arkansas, with plans to return to Quitman to teach.
“Delves into the seemingly thoughtless brutality of a hunter’s viewpoint and morphs it into a vision of considerable beauty making hunting a personal artform,” former Quitman High teacher Renee Clemmons said of the poem.
Skylar Nelsen earned second place and $300 for “morning tidings.” Nelsen is a senior at UCA graduating this May with a dual major in creative writing and film and a minor in marketing. Her work has appeared in The Vortex literary magazine.
UCA Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Acie Clark praised the poem’s structure.
“In ‘morning tidings,’ we see the writer’s training as a filmmaker in the quatrain frames that compose the poem,” Clark said. “This is a feat of detail and concentration, yes, but the speaker directs the motion of the scenes outward, granting action and agency to the natural world that surrounds her.”
Genna Crafton took third place and $200 for “A Graveyard, A Front Door.” Crafton, who uses they/them pronouns, is a poet, playwright and stage manager at the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville pursuing a bachelor of arts in theatre design and technology with a minor in history.
University of Arkansas – Fayetteville Teaching Assistant Professor Joe Millet said the poem “catches the precise moment where childhood no longer comforts us, and yet there is nothing to take its place. For all its brevity, it’s a fierce and unsettling work.”
Honorable mentions
First honorable mention went to Rachel Miller for “Tarrying on Beaver Lake.” Miller is majoring in English and theological studies at Harding University and hopes to pursue writing and ministry after college.
Zachary Walter, a UCA junior pursuing creative writing, technical writing and philosophy, took second honorable mention for “Icarus’ Last Letter.”
Third honorable mention was awarded to Caleb Givens, a UCA creative writing major, for “Loves Greatest Cost.”
