Announcing the Longlist

for the 2026 Priscila Uppal Memorial Award

We at Canthius are delighted to announce the longlist for the 2026 PUMA contest. We received a number of really lovely submissions and our judges had a hard time narrowing down this longlist! Congratulations to the longlisted authors! And everyone, please stay tuned for our shortlist announcement!

Longlist

1. Maleea Acker, “Itch”

2. Vinita Agrawal, “Acupuncture Point SI 19”

3. Sanita Fejzic, “One Hundred and Seventy Children”

4. Rayanne Haines, “Exposure Therapy”

5. Casey Kendle, “Sour Plums in Late July”

6. Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, “Earthing”

7. Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, “For My Sister”

8. Emma Rhodes, “Dyke”

9. Emma Rhodes, “I Imagine I Am Dead”

10. Emma Rhodes, “What We Owe Teen Girls”

11. Andrea Scott, “A Cage”

12. 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!!