VU English Grad Student Wins Poetry Prize

We are happy to announce that Ethan Shea, MA '23, has won second place in the Adult Division of the Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry Contest. Now in its 18th year, the contest is presented by the Ardmore Free Library. You can learn more about the contest here.

Here is Ethan's poem:  

Per aspera ad astra

Tonight, we clutch

at celestial bodies,

unable to distinguish

satellites from stars,

eager to learn

which color we bleed.

Tires on wet roads

like tearing flesh,

toothless attempts to

escape your gravity.

The liminal space

between your sheets,

nebulous moments

discerning spring from

winter, summer from

fall. Ours is no season,

only a makeshift raft

in your bedroom,

tethered to the heavens.

~ Ethan Shea

Congrats, Ethan!