Awards
O, Miami is proud to recognize writers for their commitments to their communities. Below you'll find information about the various awards, fellowships, and laureateships that O, Miami produces alone, or with partners. Information about submission (if applicable) is linked below and also on our Submit page, whenever submissions are open.
Technically Poetic: An Artist Commission
With funding provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, O, Miami is proud to announce the creation of Technically Poetic, an artist commission that unites poetry and technology. The open call invites an established artist or artist team of any discipline to create an original project that uses technology to spread the poetry of Miamians to Miamians.
The first commissioned project entitled Wish-a-Poem by Artist Yucef Merhi will premiere in April 2024 during the O, Miami Poetry Festival in Miami, FL.
For more info, click here.
Yucef Merhi is a Miami-based artist, poet, and coder, whose innovative works fuse language, technology, and philosophical ideas. His work has been exhibited at the New Museum, New York; LACMA, Los Angeles; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Caracas; De Appel, Amsterdam; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; and Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; among others.
Derricotte/Eady Prize
O, Miami is proud to collaborate with Cave Canem Foundation to produce the annual Derricotte/Eady Prize, developed in collaboration with The Writer’s Room at The Betsy-South Beach.
Established to celebrate Cave Canem’s 20th anniversary, the prize seeks to publish one outstanding chapbook manuscript by a Black poet per year, regardless of the poet’s publication history or career status.
For more information, visit Cave Canem
Current winner
- Zaynab Iliyasu Bobi
Cadaver of Red Roses
Previous winners
- Meredith Nnoka
I Could Never Be Your Woman - Demetrius A. Buckley
Here Is Home - Wale Ayinla
To Cast A Dream - Marissa Davis
My Name & Other Languages I Am Learning How to Speak - Mia S. Willis
monster house - Layla Benitez-James
God Suspected My Heart Was a Geode But He Had to Make Sure - Nick Makoha
Resurrection Man - Rio Cortez
I have learned to define a field as a space between mountains
The Luis Hernandez Poet Laureateship
The Luis Angel Hernandez Florida Poet Laureate is an honorary two-year position awarded by Exchange for Change and O, Miami Poetry Festival to a poet incarcerated within the Florida Department of Corrections.
The vision of the Laureateship is to increase the visibility of Florida’s prison population, drawing attention to the lives and living conditions of incarcerated people; advocate for widespread, cost-free humanities education and programs in carceral settings nationwide; change public perception about incarcerated people, and assert the basic humanity of all living beings. We hope it provides a model for others to replicate across the country.
The contest is named in memory of Luis Angel Hernandez, an incarcerated Florida poet who fell in love with writing when he took his first Exchange For Change class in 2014. He passed away from cancer in 2018. For more, visit Exchange for Change.
Current Laureate
- Catherine LaFleur
Past Laureates
- Christopher Malec
- Eduardo "Echo" Martinez
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Poetry Award
O, Miami and The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center are proud to present the annual Marjory Stoneman Douglas Poetry Award. Each April, during the O, Miami Poetry Festival, one South Florida poet is selected who represents qualities that reflect Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the legacy she left behind in South Florida.
What we look for in an awardee
- Be an advocate for South Florida’s ecosystems
- Be active and outspoken in addressing the challenges faced by our natural environment
- Be a natural preservationist/conservationist
- Be a writer or poet
Current Awardee
- Arsimmer McCoy
Past Awardees
- Yaddyra Peralta
- Houston Cypress
- Cherry Pickman
- Aja Monet
- Jaswinder Bolina