“When, in a story that is perhaps apocryphal but nonetheless illuminating, Mozart was asked what his favorite music was, he is said to have replied, 'No music.' By this we do not imagine he meant to convey his distaste for music, but rather his wisdom about it: the notes are there to shape the silences, to give them resonance, even meaning. I have selected "Author's Elegy" as the winner of the 2024 Verdant Poetry Prize because it embodies this wisdom. With sharp images, remarkable form, and deep humanity, it speaks to the silences in our lives, the silences that stretch—at times impassable—between one human life and another, and, with a rare touch of grace, it makes those silences sing.”

—Joseph Fasano

Judge, 2024 Verdant Poetry Prize