Singh ’28 Wins Hartwick College’s Annual Anna Sonder Poetry Prize

The Hartwick College Department of Literature, Media and Writing is pleased to announce that Meer Singh ’28 has won the 2024–25 Anna Sonder Prize for Poetry from the Academy of American Poets.

This year’s Anna Sonder Prize competition attracted 27 poems from seven Hartwick students. Judging this year’s competition were Associate Professor of English Bradley J. Fest and Associate Professor of English Tessa Yang. Singh, an Individual Student Program major, took home the top prize for his poem “Regurgitated Life.” Honorable Mention was awarded to Bryn Illies ’25, an English major, for her poem, “Where Your Life Is Headed.”

Otto Sonder, late professor emeritus of sociology, endowed a prize in 1978 for the best poem written by a student at Hartwick, to be awarded annually by the College under the auspices of the Academy of American Poets (AAP). Hartwick is a permanent member of AAP, which was founded in 1934 and is the largest organization in the country dedicated to advancing the art of poetry. To fulfill this mission, the academy administers various programs, including the college prize program, which includes Hartwick College’s Anna Sonder Prize. The prize honors the memory of Sonder’s mother, who died in 1978.