11/03/2026
Congratulations to Douglas Walbourne-Gough, whose poem, “Alarm” was chosen as the winner of the 2026 Riddle Fence Poetry Contest! Catch a sneak peak of the first page of the poem here.
The contest was judged by Karen Solie, the award winning author of, most recently, Wellwater. The contest comes with a $1000 prize and publication in Riddle Fence magazine’s 59th issue, on magazine stands soon!
Karen Solie said of this poem:
“There is a clear and urgent musicality in this narrative poem. Its attention to a rhythm that hovers around pentameter propels the poem toward its uneasy conclusion. The clarity of its syntax allows a fullness of place to emerge, inside which the harbinger of the fish, and its implications, reverberate. The consistency of the stanzas combined with the menace inside them—the imminent fires, expanding quarry, undesirable future, all the signs the speaker is unable to ignore—create tension, a feeling of contents under pressure. In subject and technique, the poem invokes an effort to accommodate, to structure, what may well be out of control.”
Douglas Walbourne-Gough is a poet and mixed/adopted status member of Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation from Elmastukwek (the Bay of Islands), Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). These days, he stays clear of social media, gets into the woods alone as often as possible, and works in a dental lab, designing cast metal dentures.
Our issue 59 digital features will be posted next week including Douglas’ winning poem. To subscribe to Riddle Fence or purchase Issue 59, follow the link in our bio.
