Winner of the 2025 Donald Justice Poetry Prize announced!

On behalf of the West Chester University Poetry Center, Autumn House is pleased to announce that P. Scott Cunningham’s manuscript, Self-Portrait as the “i” in Florida, has won the 2025 Donald Justice Poetry Prize judged by Major Jackson.

Of the collection, Jackson says,

A sly humor and pitched lyricism mark this manuscript. I am fascinated in how the beauty and whimsical nature Florida is gorgeously placed in our cultural imagination.

P. Scott Cunningham is the author of Ya Te Veo (University of Arkansas, 2018), selected by Billy Collins as part of the Miller Williams Poetry Series. The manuscript was also a finalist for the National Poetry Series. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared in The Nation, American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, POETRY, A Public Space, Harvard Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Monocle, and The Guardian, among others. Born and raised in South Florida, he is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the founder of the O, Miami Poetry Festival. He lives with his family in Illinois.

Autumn House will publish Self-Portrait as the “i” in Florida in our Spring 2026 season. Please join us in congratulating Scott!

The Donald Justice Prize is made possible through the generosity of the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards created by Kean W. Spencer.