We are excited to announce Steve Castro‘s poetry collection, Conejo y Gallo, has been selected as the winning manuscript for this year’s 42 Miles Press Poetry Award! Please join us in congratulating Steve on this achievement.
Steve’s book will appear in the fall of 2027, along with a public reading at Indiana University South Bend.
You can read a sample poem from Conejo y Gallo below.
Thank you to our runner-ups, finalists, and to everyone who submitted this year. As always, it was a privilege to read so many incredible manuscripts.
The 2026 42 Miles Press Poetry Award will open to submissions on February 1st.
Steve Castro is a Costa Rican surrealist and documentary poet who earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing (Poetry) from The American University in Washington, D.C. His poetry collection, Conejo y Gallo, won the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award (2025) selected by Series Editor, David Dodd Lee. He has been a finalist for the National Poetry Series Competition, the Poetic Justice Institute Editors Prize for a BIPOC Writer and The Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series. His poetry has appeared in 32 Poems; The National Poetry Review; Tampa Review; Laurel Review; Cream City Review; DIAGRAM; miCRo: The Cincinnati Review; Verse Daily; The Spectacle; Water~Stone Review; Huizache; Green Mountains Review; Salamander; Bayou Magazine; Packingtown Review; The Florida Review; Image; PALABRITAS; diode; Gallus: Poetry Scotland’s Sassy Sibling; Notre Dame Review; etc. He resides in Southern Indiana.
Instagram: @ticopoet
Website: https://linktr.ee/thepoetryengineer
Deer whisperer
Sitka deer are excellent swimmers, so you have to be careful.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they swam across the Ohio River
in order to do something criminal. I almost got killed by a deer once.
I also had an individual with a deer head shoot an arrow right over my head.
In my backyard, I once fed an apple to a deer in need,
and he came back the next day with his entire mob. They held me hostage
until I gave them all of my fruit & vegetables. They didn’t even leave me
a single papaya. I once started a letter with the words Deer Susan,
and I was so embarrassed when Susan showed me the error.
It is said that wolves are the deer’s worst enemies, but deer are their own worst enemy.
Once a week, I visit my local deer cemetery, and I see deer eating grass,
picnicking with their families, lamenting over their loved ones,
and some even gossiping as to why I might be there.
from A Flame Called Indiana: An Anthology of Contemporary Hoosier Writing
The 2025 42 Miles Poetry Award
We’d like to thank all of our contestants, editors, readers, and everyone who continues to support 42 Miles Press and The 42 Miles Press Poetry Award. Please join us in congratulating our winner, Steve Castro; our runners-up, A.M. Goodhart, Vi Khi Nao, Bryan D. Price, Liane Strauss, and Ariel Joy So; and all of our incredible finalists.
Winner
Steve Castro — Conejo y Gallo
1st Runner-Up
A.M. Goodhart — Neither Kind of Body
2nd Runner-Up
Vi Khi Nao — The Figurative Narrations of Odd Nerdstrum
3rd Runner-Up
Bryan D. Price — More Poems About Birds
4th Runner-Up
Liane Strauss — The Delirium Team
5th Runner-Up
Ariel Joy So — My Ghost
Tyler Dunston— A Field of Green Lights
Mermer Blakeslee — deep is the skin of the world
William Benton — Thirst
Kelly R. Samuels — Conveyance
Camille Carter — Chinook
Gary McDowell — Marriage And
David Moolten — Infernal Dance
Patty Seyburn—Inventing the Ladle
Norman Minnick — Amusing Injuries
John Glowney — angle of splinter
Randall Watson — In the Flower’s Throat, The History of Bees
Elizabeth Robin — Home is Where
John Nieves — Songs for the Failing Light
elin o’Hara slavick — Lung Maps of U
Malcolm Farley — Wissahickon Formation
Eric Roy — American Distance
Lucas Cardona — Brainland
Stephanie Heit — Every Horizon Turns Liquid
Ben Pease — Werring
Seth Rosenbloom — Like Angels
Amanda Nicole Corbin — a say in patience
Adam Edelman — Drift Signals
Lisa Stice — Coarse Lessons
Devan Murphy — A Dove, Breathing Fire
Daniel Biegelson — Tremblewood
Steve Myers — Sweet Light
Steven Priest — Miniseries
Sandy Solomon — Flying into a Hurricane
Ashley Seitz Kramer — Proxemics
Tim Mayo — Muscle Memories of Love and Disaster
Alexis Ivy — That Ribbon of Highway
Peter Kline — Protagonist
Lorene Delany-Ullman — The Grief Contest
Adam Spiegelman — Turned on the spit
Gerald Yelle — Teeth Marks
Julie Choffel — This Close
42milespress.com 