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At Carlow University, the next generation of ethical leaders is already in the making.
Here, our students gain more than just a degree – they build connections, find purpose, and thrive – working in ways big and small to reshape the future. With your support, we can continue to invest in these future leaders and expand their ability to transform our world.
How You Can Support
At Carlow University, the next generation of ethical leaders is already in the making.
Here, our students gain more than just a degree – they build connections, find purpose, and thrive – working in ways big and small to reshape the future. With your support, we can continue to invest in these future leaders and expand their ability to transform our world.
How You Can SupportPatricia Dobler Poetry Award Winners
The Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, sponsored by Madwomen in the Attic, is an annual contest open to women writers over the age of 40 who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, currently living in the U.S., who have not published a full-length book of poetry, fiction, or non-fiction.
2025 Award Winner
Diana Tokaji
Title: The Migration of Dahlia
As winner of the 2025 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, Tokaji will receive $1,000; a public
reading in Pittsburgh, PA, with judge Jenny Johnson in Spring 2026; round-trip travel and
lodging for her public reading; and publication of her winning poem in Voices from the Attic.
About the winner
Diana Tokaji is a performance artist who combines spoken word and choreography, featured in London, San Francisco, and the Capital Fringe Festival, where her shows won Pick of the Fringe. Her memoir, Six Women in a Cell, won Best Indie Book Award for Nonfiction in 2021. Her intimate resource book, Surviving Assault: Words that Rock & Quiet & Tell the Truth, was a Next Generation Book Award finalist. Winner of the Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Prize judged by Richard Blanco, like many of her essays and poems, the awarded work reflected a social justice issue, in this case police brutality—“Post-Assault Prescription When I Fear My Spirit Dying.” Publications include, among others: Bellevue Literary Review, The Mid-Atlantic Review, Solstice Literary (2022 essay finalist), Frontier Poetry (2024 Tanka Award), The Origami Poems Project, and parenting rags, humor anthologies, feminist presses, and a bus in Virginia that displays her selected poem. Tokaji is a Certified Yoga Therapist supporting female and non-binary survivors of assault and trauma. Currently at work on eight books (yes, in the attic), titles include Moose on a Red Swivel Stool (story poems); Book of Essays Before I Die; and SPOKE: Poems of Squid, Cellmates, Love.
Past award winners
To view or download the poem and additional information about our winners, click on the title of the poem below.
2024: “Portrait of Endangered Sturgeon Release Party“, Andrea England
2023: “Vessel“, Rose DeMaris
2022: “First Night“, Jana-Lee Germaine
2021: “Your Sister Brings Me an Orchard“, Elizabeth Wilson
2020: “Juxtaposing the Black Girl & the Abuse“, Shirley Jones Luke
2019: “Fox Collar“, Kathleen Kirk from Normal, Il
2018: “The Grocery Store“, Donna M. Glass
2017: “Sorrow I Will Lead You Out Somewhere“, Deborah Allbritain
2016: “After the Accident“, Dana Salvador
2015: “A Woman from the Infant Mortality Review Board Calls“, Amanda Newell
2014: “Float“, Wendy Miles
2013: “Furious Bread“, Chryss Yost
2012: “At the Brera, Milan“, Michelle Maher
2011: “The Stone of Me“, Gail Langstroth
2010: “Toehold“, Margot Wizansky
2009: “Goliath“, Heidi Johannesen Poon
2008: “Mud Season (2nd grade)“, Jane McKinley
2007 (inaugural year): “Incoming Wounded“, Maureen O’Brien
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