Announcing the WINNER

of the 2026 Priscila Uppal Memorial Award

We at Canthius are delighted to announce the winner of the 2026 Priscila Uppal Memorial Award for poetry. As we have mentioned, this year we received a number of really lovely submissions and our judges really enjoyed reading all the submissions. We are really pleased to share this announcement with you all! Congratulations to the winner, the runner up, and all the shortlisted authors!

We’ll be publishing the winning and the honorable mention poem on our website next week for you all to enjoy. Thanks to all the writers, readers, and volunteer judges involved for your continued support of feminist publishing in Canada!

WINNER

Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, “Earthing”

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

“Earthing” begins with an invitation. “Consult the frilled sea-green lichen,” the speaker suggests, moving into a gentle benediction that encourages the reader to discover the beauty in decay, growth, grief and gratitude alike. There are no wasted words in this poem; the direct and precise language work alongside the second-person address to ground the reader, pull them in and quietly point them towards a new way of seeing the world. In the midst of darkness and grief, “Earthing” reminds us to see the holiness inherent in the lichen, the sumac leaves and the split mossycup acorn. There, on the forest floor, a sapling is lifting its face eternally skyward, reaching towards the light.

honorable mention

Vinita Agrawal, “Acupuncture Point SI 19”

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

In “Acupuncture Point SI 19,” an acupuncture point is unfurled into a metaphor for perception itself: a “wet, red dark” place of work, where the world is sifted into what should be held and what must be released. In this place, the speaker suggests, clarity and calm are not passive states, but an ethical practice we can build with the “will / to separate the signal from the roaring static.” This contest invited poems that dig around in the darkness for something to grasp onto. With beautifully sharp and visceral language, “Acupuncture Point SI 19” reminds us of our agency—and responsibility­—to listen for the truth, echoing like a raindrop in a well, and to let everything else fall away.

SHORTLIST

Longlist

• Maleea Acker, “Itch”

• Vinita Agrawal, “Acupuncture Point SI 19”

• Sanita Fejzic, “One Hundred and Seventy Children”

• Rayanne Haines, “Exposure Therapy”

• Casey Kendle, “Sour Plums in Late July”

• Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, “Earthing”

• Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, “For My Sister”

• Emma Rhodes, “Dyke”

• Emma Rhodes, “I Imagine I Am Dead”

• Emma Rhodes, “What We Owe Teen Girls”

• Andrea Scott, “A Cage”

• Olivia Stogner, “With Me”

Judges

Canthius would like to extended a great big love-filled thank you to our dedicated judges who volunteered their time to read over all the excellent submissions for this award and put together this longlist of poems. Judging for the competition was completely blind to ensure impartiality.

The 2026 PUMA judges were: Sneha Madhavan-Reese, Puneet Dutt, Amy Leblanc, Karen Schindler, Manahil Bandukwala, Ashley Hynd, and Natalie Lim, all of whom already dedicate so much time and energy to keeping Canthius alive. We’d be nowhere and nothing with you all. Thank you!!