New York, NY (April 22, 2026)—On Earth Day, April 22, the Academy of American Poets announces the winners of the 2026 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize: Malia Maxwell, W. J. Herbert, Ronald Carson, and Deahna Fumarol. The prize honors exceptional poems that help readers recognize the vulnerable state of our environment.

Established in 2019 with generous support from Treehouse Investments, the prize awards four poets each year. All four winning poems will be published in the popular Poem-a-Day series, which reaches more than 330,000 readers each day via email, podcast, Poets.org, and social media. Poems may also be featured in the award-winning education series Teach this Poem, which serves more than 30,000 educators each week.

The winning poems and poets are:

  • First Place: “In the not-not-woods” by Malia Maxwell, to be published in Poem-a-Day on April 26
  • Second Place: “Drought Season” by W. J. Herbert, to be published in Poem-a-Day on May 3
  • Third Place: “Forever Plastics” by Ronald Carson, to be published in Poem-a-Day on May 10
  • Fourth Place: “After the Work Is Done” by Deahna Fumarol, to be published in Poem-a-Day on May 17

This year’s winners were selected by poet Craig Santos Perez and climate scientist Dr. Clara Deser.

Reflecting on the winning poems, the judges noted in the first-place poem that “In the not-not-woods” is “a powerful narrative filled with the haunting imagery of environmental destruction,” using “tight, percussive language” and repeated phrasing to convey “anger, confusion, and disbelief over the devastation humans have wrought on the landscape.” Of “Drought Season,” the judges praised its “vivid imagery” and careful attention to form, describing a “desert emptying” through lines that immerse the reader in “the rhythms of a drought season.” In “Forever Plastics,” the judges highlighted the poem’s striking personification, observing how it reveals plastic as “the future fossil of your present, / already here,” underscoring its permanence and omnipresence. The judges also commended “After the Work Is Done” for its “exceptional emotional power,” noting its haunting landscape of “the ghosts of chainsaws” and its meditation on loss and the possibility of return.

Submissions for the 2026 prize were accepted from September 15 to November 15, 2025. Submissions for the 2027 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize will be accepted from September 15 to November 15, 2026.

To receive the poems, sign up for Poem-a-Day at poets.org.

About the Winners

Malia Maxwell

Malia Maxwell (Kanaka Maoli) is a writer from Seattle. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where she won the 2025 Michael R. Gutterman Award in Poetry. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. Her writing has been supported by scholarships and fellowships from Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference and Vermont Studio Center. .

W. J. Herbert

W. J. Herbert’s debut collection, Dear Specimen (Beacon Press, 2021), was selected by Kwame Dawes as a winner of the 2020 National Poetry Series and awarded a 2022 Maine Literary Award for Poetry. Also a winner of the 2022 Arts & Letters/Rumi Prize for Poetry, Herbert’s work appears in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Atlantic, Best American Poetry 2017 and 2024, respectively, and elsewhere. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Ronald Carson

Ronald Carson is an Irish-born poet living in San Diego. He won the 2025 Frances Browne Poetry Competition with the poem “Departure Ballad” and is short-listed for the Moth Poetry Prize, judged by Ishion Hutchinson. He works in aerospace. 

Deahna Fumarol

Deahna Fumarol is a Pacific Northwest–based artist and poet. She holds a BFA in applied visual art from Oregon State University and lives in Newport, Oregon.

About the Judges

Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez has authored seven books of poetry, including From Unincorporated Territory [åmot] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2023), winner of the 2023 National Book Award in Poetry, and from unincorporated territory [guma’] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2014), winner of the 2015 American Book Award. In 2017, Perez became the first native Pacific Islander to receive a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship for Poetry. In 2011, he cofounded Ala Press, an independent publisher with a focus on Pacific literature. Perez is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He lives in Mānoa.

Dr. Clara Deser

Dr. Clara Deser is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research where she leads the Climate Analysis Section. She earned her BS degree in Earth and planetary sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982, and her PhD in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington in 1989, under the supervision of John Michael Wallace. Deser was a postdoctoral fellow with Maurice Blackmon at the Cooperative Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, and joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1997. In addition to climate science, Clara brings poetry and music into her life every day.

About Treehouse Investments

Treehouse Investments, LLC, is a minority-owned infrastructure investment firm dedicated to addressing climate change. Treehouse focuses on decentralized infrastructure because it believes that infrastructure provides the foundation on which all other human endeavors are built, and decentralized solutions incorporate the resilience our world increasingly needs.

About the Academy of American Poets

Founded in 1934, the Academy of American Poets is a leading publisher of contemporary poetry in the United States. The organization annually awards more than $1.3 million to poets at various stages of their careers through its prize program. It also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; organizes National Poetry Month each April; publishes the Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides free resources to educators; hosts public poetry programs and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition that promotes the value poets bring to our culture. To learn more about the Academy of American Poets, including its staff, its Board of Directors, and its Board of Chancellors, visit Poets.org.

For more information and requests:
Peggy Ryan, Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications
212-274-0343
[email protected]