The Philip Levine Prize for Poetry is an annual book contest from the Fresno State MFA program G. Hanzlicek. C. Hanzlicek was born in Owatonna, Minnesota, in 1942.
The Philip Levine Prize for Poetry 2017 book contest will be judged by poet and Fresno State professor emeritus C. He is the author of nine books of poetry: Living in It, Stars (winner of the 1977 Devins Award for Poetry), Calling the Dead, A Dozen for Leah, When There Are No Secrets, Mahler: Poems and Etchings, Against Dreaming, The Cave: Selected and New Poems, and, most recently, The Lives of B
02/05/2026
New on Fresno State Today: Read the full news release on our 2025 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry contest winner, Jia-Rui Cook of Los Angeles, CA. Jia-Rui's winning manuscript, "Soft Beasts," was selected by Jake Skeets.
Black Lawrence Press
https://today.fresnostate.edu/los-angeles-author-wins-2025-philip-levine-prize-for-poetry/
02/03/2026
We have a winner! 🥇🥳♥️
Los Angeles author Jia-Rui Cook has won the 2025 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry book contest, for her debut poetry collection, “Soft Beasts,” selected by Jake Skeets.
Praise from the judge:
“Moving through night markets and post-apocalyptic bars, 'Soft Beasts' is both wonder and wander. Its pages hold stark, living images of place: gas stations, oarfish, tulip trees, ‘a throng of frogs.’ I cherish this book for how it teaches us to be alive in the present moment: worrying about old socks, carrying the stories of our families. Cook is an exciting voice in American poetry.”
About the author:
Jia-Rui Cook is a Chinese American writer, editor, and producer who grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and now lives in Los Angeles. Her poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Alta Journal, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, Electric Literature’s The Commuter, the Missouri Review, Only Poems, Puerto del Sol, SWWIM Every Day, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. Jia-Rui won the Zócalo Public Square poetry prize in 2013 and is a 2026 Periplus fellow. Once a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and the news events and projects lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, she is currently a senior communications officer at the California Wellness Foundation. “Soft Beasts” is her debut full-length collection.
Full news release coming soon. 👀
Black Lawrence Press