Editor's Choice

In a well-lit, windowless cupboard alone
with a chirping machine,
a bucket of melting ice
and a persistent smell,
I danced.

Cristy Gelling received her Ph.D. in 2008 from the University of New South Wales, Australia, where she identified a maturation factor for Fe/S proteins like aconitase. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh studying the disease alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and trying not to injure anyone with her dance moves.

Read the rest of the winning poems.
Read the judges' biographies.