Patricia Dobler Poetry Award Winners - Madwomen in the Attic

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.

2023 Award Winner

Rose DeMaris

Title: Vessel

As winner of the 2023 Patricia Dobler Poetry Award, DeMaris will receive $1,000; a public reading in Pittsburgh, PA, with judge Allison Joseph in Spring 2024; round-trip travel and lodging for her public reading; and publication of her winning poem in Voices from the Attic, Volume XXIX.

read the poem & judge’s commentary

About the winner

Rose DeMaris is an emerging poet and longtime educator. Her poems appear in New England Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, Narrative, Image, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere, and she was the recipient of Orison Books’ 2022 Best Spiritual Literature Award in Poetry. She holds advanced degrees in English and Native American Studies, as well as an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University, where she was a Creative Writing Teaching Fellow. Born and raised in Southern California, she went on to spend many years in Montana and now lives in New York City.

Past award winners

To view or download the poem and additional information about our winners, click on the title of the poem below.

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