Hub City Press Announces 2024 BIPOC Poetry Series Winners

Hub City Press is pleased to announce the inaugural winners of the 2024 BIPOC Poetry Series, Cloud Delfina Cardona for their manuscript the past is a jean jacket and Lolita Stewart-White for her manuscript black frag/ments. The Hub City BIPOC Poetry Series aims to champion BIPOC/ALAANA poets working in the South today by offering two writers an advance of $3000 and publication. Both winners were selected by editor-at-large Ashley M. Jones. 

Ashley M. Jones is Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama (2022-2026) and the author of three poetry collections:  Reparations Now!, longlisted for the 2022 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry; dark // thing; and Magic City Gospel. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is Associate Director of the University Honors Program at UAB, founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, and co-director of PEN Birmingham. On working as the editor-at-large Jones says, “This series meant so much to me because it helped me do what I aim to do always—make space for all voices and represent the South in all its complexity and wonderment. These books do just that—they are fresh, honest, unflinching and beautiful additions to the literary landscape!”

Winner Cloud Delfina Cardona says, “I'm honored to be chosen by Ashley M. Jones for the Hub City Press BIPOC Poetry Prize. I feel very lucky to be published by a press that prioritizes Southern voices. I hope that my forthcoming collection resonates with lonely girls, gays, and theys who grew up on Tumblr.” Cloud Delfina Cardona (she/they) is an artist and writer from San Antonio, TX. She is the author of What Remains, winner of the Host Publications Chapbook Prize. She is the co-founder of Infrarrealista Review, a literary nonprofit that publishes Texan voices. She has received editorial fellowships from Macmillan in collaboration with Latinx in Publishing and Texas State University’s Center for the Study of the Southwest. They have been a workshop participant at Tin House and Macondo’s Writing Workshop. Their poetry can be found in Prairie Schooner, The Boiler, The Los Angeles Review, and more. She currently works as the marketing coordinator at Gemini Ink. She believes in a free Palestine.

Winner Lolita Stewart-White says, “Power is history mixed with personal story. The universal WE!” Lolita Stewart-White is a poet, playwright, and filmmaker from Liberty City, Florida. She is a Pushcart nominee and winner of the Paris American Series Prize. Her poetry has been featured in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Beloit Poetry Journal, the Boston Review, and the African American Review. Her poem “Healing” was featured in the anthology This is the Honey, curated by New York Times best-selling author Kwame Alexander. Stewart-White is an alumnus of Miami City Theatre’s Homegrown Program, a playwriting development program that nurtures emerging BIPOC playwrights. She is a Cave Canem Fellows Fund Project Grantee for her play-in-verse, Liberty City Vignettes currently in development. Stewart-White has received fellowships from the South Florida Cultural Consortium, the Miami Light Project, and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Her films have been exhibited at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, the Seattle Black Film Festival, and the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA).

Hub City Press will publish these collections in fall 2025 and spring 2026.