Singh ’28 Wins Second Anna Sonder Poetry Prize

The Hartwick College Department of Literature, Media and Writing is pleased to announce that Meer Singh ’28 has won the 2025–26 Anna Sonder Prize for Poetry from the Academy of American Poets for the second straight year.

This year’s competition drew 22 submissions from five Hartwick students. Judging this year were James Cochran, assistant professor of English and director of the Writing Competency Program and the Writing Center, and Bradley J. Fest, associate professor of English. Singh, an Individual Student Program (ISP) major with a minor in Music, took home the top prize for the poem “Out of the Blue.” Honorable Mention was awarded to Olive Anderson ’27, a nursing major with a minor in creative writing, for the poem, “Work.”

The Anna Sonder Prize for Poetry was established in 1978 by the late Otto Sonder, professor emeritus of sociology, who endowed the award to recognize the best poem written by a Hartwick student each year. The College has presented the prize annually under the auspices of the Academy of American Poets (AAP), based in New York City.

Hartwick is a permanent member of the AAP, founded in 1934 and the nation’s largest organization dedicated to advancing the art of poetry. In support of this mission, the academy administers several programs, including its college prize program, through which Hartwick awards the Anna Sonder Prize. The prize honors the memory of Sonder’s mother, who died in 1978.