Joe Fishleigh wins Mountain Xpress 2026 Poetry Contest again

Joe Fishleigh returned to the top of Mountain Xpress’s poetry contest in 2026, winning with The Recital after nearly 40 local poets submitted work. The repeat victory put Fishleigh back in the spotlight three years after he last won, and it came with Nancy Dillingham, a sixth-generation Big Ivy native, selecting the top three poems from anonymous entries.

The contest’s 2026 theme, chosen by readers, was food as community, and Fishleigh said his poem was meant for people who think they are not creative, artistic, or do not get poetry. He also said he continues to learn from and be inspired by many poets in Western North Carolina, a reminder that the contest is less about a single prize than about a working literary circle that keeps producing new work and reading one another closely.

Dillingham brought deep local roots to the judging. She taught language arts, history, journalism and creative writing at Fairview Elementary School and A.C. Reynolds High School, spent 17 years as an instructor at A-B Tech, worked on the college’s literary magazine, teaches poetry with the Great Smokies Writing Program and edits the online poetry publication Speckled Trout Review. Her latest collection, On Music: Collected Poems, was released in December 2025 by Rockwood Press. Kim Hayes placed second in 2026, and Martha Vining took third.

Fishleigh’s return also fits into the contest’s recent history of uneven but sturdy participation. More than 60 local poets entered in 2023, more than double the 2021 turnout, and Mountain Xpress did not host the contest in 2022. In 2024, over 40 poets submitted work, and in 2025 nearly 100 poets entered. The judges have changed from year to year too, with poet Michael Hettich, who retired to Black Mountain in 2018 after 28 years teaching English at Miami Dade College, presiding in 2023, and writer Brit Washburn judging in 2024.

For Asheville and Buncombe County, the contest continues to offer something that is easy to overlook in a city better known for music and visual art: a low-cost public stage for poets who want visibility, community and a reason to keep writing. Fishleigh’s second win shows that the local poetry scene is not just surviving between larger arts headlines; it is still producing recognizable names, new voices and a recurring place for Western North Carolina writers to be seen.