After Hours literary journal, Chicago

Past and Current Year Winners

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Albert DeGenova


Editors

Albert DeGenova

P. Hertel


Circulation Manager

Andrew Byrne

© After Hours Press 2026, Elmwood Park, IL

2025 Winners - Judge Mike Puican

WINNERS -- Simone Muench & Jackie K. White (collaboration poem),  "Bona Plays Her Part in The Revival"

FINALIST -- Virginia Bell, "Meuse VI"

FINALIST -- Molly Sturdevant, "Your Instrument Mouths"

FINALIST -- Judith Valente, "What Peace Is"


2024 Winners - Judge Brenda Cárdenas

WINNER -- Caroline Wellman,  "Self Portrait as Orca"

FINALIST -- Nicole Lombardi, "Run"

FINALIST -- Johnny Cate, "Tears in Rain (Extended Cut)'"

FINALIST -- Judith Valente, "Encountering Silence"


2023 Winners - Judge Timothy David Rey

WINNER -- Caroline Wellman,  "Portrait of My Father as a Mute Swan"

FINALIST -- Jesica Davis, "Carry"

FINALIST -- Joanne Durham, "Conversation with Henri Rousseau about his 'Vue de Bois de Boulogne'"

FINALIST -- Mary Ann Crowe, "Missing Daughters of Chicagoua"


2022 Winners - Judge Billy Lombardo

WINNER -- Crystal S. Rudds,  "Freedom's Cage"

FINALIST -- Ralph Murre, "Wound"

FINALIST -- Jayne Marek, "Blue Jacket"

FINALIST -- Patrick T. Reardon, "The Archangel Michael"


2021 Winners - Judge Mark Turcotte

WINNER -- Kevin Burris, “Production”

FINALIST -- Jennifer Dotson, “Why I Don't Analyze My Dreams”

FINALIST -- Bob Chicoine, “Aqueduct”

FINALIST -- Jayne Marek, “Annie at 70, Hanging Wash”


2020 Winners - Judge Marty McConnell

WINNER -- David Mathews, “The Naming of Monsters”

FINALIST -- Kathleen Kirk, “Elaborate Failure”

FINALIST -- Jane Craven, “Simulacrum”

FINALIST -- Patricia McMillen, “Jesus Heads Home”


2019 Winners - Judge Stuart Dybek

WINNER -- Susanna Lang, “Shelter”

FINALIST -- Kevin Burris, “Factory Birds”

FINALIST -- Ellaraine Lockie, “Flashbacks in a Bottle”

Current Issue $15.00

a matter of life or death, by Siegfried Mortkowitz

A Summer in Silesia, by P. Hertel

Wherever I'm At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (published in partnership with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame), $25.00

Dancing A Dizzy Holiliness, by Larry Janowski, $15.00

when word and image run away, the selected poems of Mary Blinn, $15.00

The Professor's Quarters, essays by students of Norbert Blei and their experience of his class at The Clearing Folk School, $15.00

Subscription, One Year, $25.00



After Hours Press literary publisher Alber DeGenova