Student Poets Win in National Contest

Millersville University student Wyatt Potter earned first place in the 2026 Academy of American Poets University & College Poetry Prize contest, while Emerson Campbell received an honorable mention. The annual competition, which Millersville has participated in since 2015, highlights creativity on a national level and provides young poets the opportunity to have their work published and recognized.

This year's contest featured 15 student poets who submitted 33 poems for consideration. Each participant was allowed to submit up to three poems, encouraging a wide range of styles and voices. The competition is part of a nationwide program designed to recognize outstanding student writing and connect emerging poets with a broader literary audience.

The first-place winner receives prize money, a one-year membership to the Academy of American Poets, a subscription to American Poets magazine and publication of their winning poem on the Poets.org University & College Poetry Prizes page.

Potter's winning poem, "Untitled - For Heather and CJ," explores the tension between nature and industrial life through layered imagery and reflection. Campbell's honorable mention poem, "Cancer and What Else?" takes a more intimate approach, capturing the emotional weight of illness, family and the passage of time.

Winning Poem:

Untitled - For Heather and CJ
By Wyatt Potter

I lean my weighty head

On her manure-smelling overcoat
and his books and bands.

Many are sinking
and diving towards the murky bulwark tide.

Affluent flophouse
mercurial tele-worlds and drop-outs
succumbing to no longer-nature

The empty rails and gravel ghosts of the great
American highway
spread iron meridians county to county.

Connecting lines from cracked cement to damp clay;
This affirming verdant undergrowth feeds two sturdy Chestnuts,
a Birch, and a Maple.

Radiant as a blazing sky they stand, and sustain my limbs in transitional bliss-
closer to the earthen odor.

In shade, this tranquil vanguard pushes against metal coils with lacquered strength-
and against indifference with a supreme love.

Whatever is to be built
and what may never know branch or scaffold
I will give thanks to all that is here
for it is all that needs remain.

Honorable Mention Poem:

Cancer and What Else?
By Emerson Campbell

A fallen asterisks
On my mothers undereyes
Time is wearing on her

I sleep with heaviness dreaming of
Forgetful promises
What will I become?

My father ages
Rapidly in molasses
His bones wearing to fragility

Hair thinning, eyes of
Milky glazed sweetness,
I heard his father there once before

Ribs ache with the scalpel
It cuts under the bone, it
Warps the muscle long

His hands are larger
Than our lives, my future
Once held in his palms

Concrete raindrops fall
Upon the windowsill
I listen intently

Gulping for air he
Grasps upon that metal can
Lungs incessantly

Working, moving, heaving
Lungs like worn elastic bands
Old snapping shudders

I recall much of
His liveliness, immortal
Ruler of body

Unafraid, wavers,
He does not burden his baby
With this agony of his

I rack my brain
Of what it must feel like
To slowly lose yourself

To a force that is
Chosen, predestined to haunt
You, Your children of…