ATHOL – The 2025 Beals Prize for Poetry will hold its award ceremony at the Beals Memorial Library on Sept. 25, featuring readings from the top 10 finalists, including Sarah Hall of Athol.
Other finalists include Hillary Smith-Maddern of Greenfield and Prudence Wholey of Shelburne. In its sixth year, the competition drew 87 poets from across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Prizes include $250 for first place, $100 for second and $50 for third, with winners selected by a panel of established poets.
Sarah Hall’s piece, “Abecedarian in the Spring,” is a reflective poem capturing her personal experiences as winter turns to spring, including recovering from illness and seasonal depression.
“Spring is such a symbolic season for new growth and change. It’s my favorite season, so I wanted to write about the parts that make me happy, such as the smell of rain and no longer having to wear a dozen layers,” she said.
She also sought to balance hardship with hope, adding “I wanted to write something to acknowledge my misery while being optimistic that things could get better.”
Hall, a junior at UMass Amherst studying communication and film, first learned the abecedarian form, where each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet, through her school’s poetry club.
“I liked the challenge of making sure the lines stayed in order and coming up with various words that fit,” she said.
Hall has enjoyed writing since middle school and refined her voice over time, focusing on vivid imagery to make her poems resonate.
She hopes readers receive a simple but meaningful message from her poem.
“Go outside and get some sun in the winter… and if things start worrying you, try writing,” she said. “You never know, it could be something you really enjoy doing.”
Smith-Maddern wrote “At Banshee Bar,” inspired by a mix of real-life conversations and observations. The poem focuses on her experience at a real bar in Latvia, where the bartender shared stories about her ex-boyfriend, who had a habit of breaking things.
“Listening to her talk reminded me of so many other similar stories and inspired me to write it down as hers,” Smith-Maddern said.
She explained that the poem reflects the tension women often navigate in relationships, noting, “There is a fine line between safe and unsafe when you are attracted to cis men.”
She hopes readers take away a clear message: “Believe women. Full stop.”
Smith-Maddern has been writing on and off throughout her life and approached it more seriously in 2020. She uses her craft to process experience and emotion, saying, “Poetry also gets to be messy and a little bit ugly if it needs to be.”
She said being recognized as a finalist affirms her work and motivates her to continue pursuing publication and release a debut collection.
Wholey wrote “Vanished,” which recounts the histories and lives embedded in decaying farm structures. A farmer herself, she drew inspiration from the rural landscapes around and a public television program documenting old barns and farm buildings across the country.
The poem reflects the decline of a farm, describing empty stanchions, a fallen silo, and loose roof shingles, while also imagining the past farmers’ daily life, from the clank of milking pails to cats chasing warm milk.
“Once this was really up-and-coming, a booming business, and now it’s kind of dreary and sad,” Wholey said.
She writes regularly with a group of friends, letting ideas develop over time and revisiting drafts until they feel right. “Vanished” took her a couple of months to complete through this process of refining and exploring different versions before arriving at the final poem.
All 10 finalists will read their poems at the ceremony, with winners announced by judges Sara Letourneau, 2023 Beals Prize winner; Maria Williams, author of “White Doe”; and Cleo Rohn, 2024 Beals Prize winner. The event is funded in part by the Winchendon Cultural Council and the Friends of the Beals Memorial Library.
The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m. at The Beals Memorial Library is located at 50 Pleasant St. in Winchendon.