Kaecey McCormick Wins 2026 Wolfson Chapbook Prize

We're pleased to announce the winner of this year’s chapbook prize, Kaecey McCormick, whose collection, The Physics of After, will be published by Wolfson Press in 2027. It will be Kaecey’s third published collection.

In her award citation, contest judge Nancy Botkin writes, “Here we have a wonderfully wrought account of a dying sister and all its attendant griefs. While the book’s structure reaches for empirical logic and reasoning, the poems reveal the messiness of life and the mysteries that defy such logic. Death, then, is the big subject—loss and the weight of it. Many of the poems are carved into blocks of text holding rich and stunning images, as if the poet meant to contain and control her grief. A remarkable collection.”

About the Author

Kaecey McCormick writes in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she served as Poet Laureate of Cupertino. Her work appears in various literary journals, including the Poet Lore, Baltimore Review, and The Pinch. When she’s not writing, Kaecey can be found hiking, reading, or people-watching while drinking coffee. She shares her home with her long-suffering partner, two cats, and a growing collection of rocks.

We had many strong manuscripts, and I want especially to call attention to our list of ten finalists. These writers are worthy of serious attention.