MoonPath Press judge Annette Sisson has selected Embraces by Alice Derry as winner of the 2026 Sally Albiso Award.
“Some Words about Love” and “Framed by Fire,” two section titles in Embraces, point to the collection’s defining motifs: love and fire. These poems attest to the brightness of our most cherished relationships and the flames that may consume a beloved home but cannot destroy the love for a deceased partner, nor the love that kindles new buds of family. Steeped in mystery, compassion, and keenly observed imagery, this poet’s facility with language is steady, offering readers an experience rich with surprise and discovery—the kind of discovery the speaker herself longs to make in the poem “Color”: “When I sit by the lake . . ./ I can’t understand/ color’s tongue, how bark speaks. . . ./ I want this wild to infuse me . . ./ these idioms I’m trying to enter.” Or as she writes in “Where Brightness Pours,” speaking ostensibly to her lost husband, but also to the reader: “I want you to imagine it/ as I imagine you every day,/ fire in your dark eyes.” Embraces testifies, again and again, that love is the fire that endures.
—Annette Sisson, contest judge, author of Winter Sharp With Apples
Embraces will be published in 2027. Alice will hold readings at venues to be announced.
Alice gratefully acknowledges the kindness of John Albiso, also of Port Angeles, in providing this support of poetry in honor of his late wife, poet Sally Albiso.
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