Hobart and William Smith creative writing professor Daniel Schonning has won the 2026 Montreal International Poetry Prize for his poem Tallow.
Schonning, a 2016 HWS graduate, was selected from a competition that drew more than 4,500 entries worldwide, according to the colleges.
The prize is awarded every two years to one poet for a single poem. HWS describes the award as $20,000.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Mojave American poet and professor Natalie Diaz selected “Tallow” as the final judge. An international jury helped narrow the field to 60 finalists.
In her commendation, Diaz described the poem as bringing together experiences of uncertainty, grief, light, darkness and peace.
Schonning shared “Tallow” at a Seneca Review poetry reading held this summer at Two Goats Brewery in Hector. He serves at HWS as a professor of practice in creative writing.
The Montreal award follows another recognition earlier this summer, when his debut collection, “As When Waking,” received the Poetry Society of America's Four Quartets Prize.
The Montreal competition's finalists included poets from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Greece, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines and Ukraine. Prize Director Carmen Faye Mathes said the field reflected a wide range of poets, places and experiences.
“Tallow” will appear in the 2026 Montreal Prize Anthology, forthcoming from Véhicule Press. The complete finalist list is available through the Montreal International Poetry Prize.
File photo of the Hobart and William Smith campus.
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