University of Detroit Mercy’s English Department is excited to announce the winners of the 2026 Magnetic Poetry Contest!
For the third year, students, faculty, staff, and alumni were encouraged to create original poems using the magnets on Briggs’s second-floor lockers. The contest judges received more submissions than ever before. Read the poems they selected as winners below.
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1st Place
Adrian C. Dertinger is a senior pursuing a Bachelor’s of Civil Engineering degree at Detroit Mercy. They have always enjoyed expressing themself through the arts, be it digital art, sewing, or more recently, poetry. They are honored to have something they made be included in [sic].
2nd Place
Alex Popp graduated from UDM in 2025 majoring in creative writing and minoring in philosophy and professional writing. He’s participated in UDM’s Triptych+1 events as a student reader at Pages Bookshop and Book Suey. His writing often reflects the difficulties of masking and surviving a world not built for neurodivergent people.
3rd Place
Ashlee Jones is an English and Communications double major with a strong passion for the art of poetry. Through her writing, she explores emotion and identity. She wants to continue to develop her voice and inspire others through her love of words and storytelling.
Honorable Mention
Phoebe Clark is a freshman majoring in English. She loves to read and write, and she has recently started the process of learning how to write poetry, which she is really enjoying so far. She hopes to pursue a career in law as well as to continue writing.
Honorable Mention
Eemi Toma is a senior Political Science major and Literature minor in the Honors College, with a Certificate in Legal Studies. She enjoys participating in the English Department and appreciates having a space to simply enjoy reading and creative writing.
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Congratulations again to this year’s winners and to everyone who participated. The magnets will remain up, so come by any time to practice for next year’s competition!
And keep an eye out in Spring 2027 for issue 34 of [sic], the university’s literary and arts journal, in which this year’s winning magnetic poems will be published!
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