The 2025 Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Prize was awarded to Joyce Victor for her poem, “Phillip’s Celebration.”

The Hive Poetry Collective is currently accepting submissions for the Annual Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Prize. Poets may submit one poem (one entry only), up to two pages in length. The winner of the prize will receive $1,000, and an invitation to read their winning poem at the 16^th Annual Morton Marcus Memorial Reading at UC Santa Cruz on November 20^th. This year’s reading will feature Santa Cruz poet Ellen Bass. This year’s judge is Santa Cruz County Poet Laureate Nancy Miller Gomez.

For prize consideration, the deadline to submit is Tuesday, September 30, 2025 at 11:59 pm. 

The Annual Morton Marcus Poetry Reading is hosted by The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz, and produced by the Morton Marcus Poetry Committee: Farnaz Fatemi, Danusha Laméris, Donna Mekis, Teresa Mora, Mark Ong, Maggie Paul, Irena Polić, David Sullivan and Gary Young. For more information about The Annual Morton Marcus Poetry Reading, including previous featured poets, click here.