November Poetry Curator Cynthia Greenlee

I Always Wanted to Have Hair Like Ida B. Wells

Cynthia Greenlee is a historian, writer, and editor. Based in North Carolina, she writes about anything she likes (or hates—she believes a combination of research and emotion make the best stories), including the American South, reproductive justice, Black food, and mystery novels. She co-edited The Echoing Ida Collection and won a James Beard Foundation Award for food writing. Zócalo’s Poetry Curator for November, Greenlee chatted with us in the green room about The Sound of Music, her hidden talent, and why the 1880s is her favorite historical decade.

The 2024 Zócalo Poetry Prize Recognizes Poems About Place

No-Fee Contest Submissions Accepted November 2023–January 2024

Since 2012, the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize has recognized the U.S. writer of a poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo will begin accepting submissions on November …

June Poetry Curator Walela Nehanda

I’m Most Creative When Open to Being Emotionally Eviscerated

Walela Nehanda is a Black, queer, and disabled cultural worker and poet. Their forthcoming debut YA poetry memoir, Bless the Blood, on surviving advanced stage leukemia, will be released next …

We were born

Eleanor Stanford Wins a 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize …

As the Fog Starts Burning Away

Brent Ameneyro Wins a 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention Award

Every year, we award the annual Zócalo Poetry Prize to the poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is pleased to recognize …

Paige Buffington Wins the 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize

Home Is the Navajo Nation in ‘From 20 Miles Outside of Gallup, Holbrook, Winslow, Farmington, or Albuquerque’—A Place That Pushes and Pulls Its People

Paige Buffington is the winner of the 12th annual Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize for “From 20 Miles Outside of Gallup, Holbrook, Winslow, Farmington, or Albuquerque.” Her prose poem evokes …