Switchback Books

We had such a great time at in Baltimore! Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Switchback table and attended our 20th anniversary celebration. Huge thank you also to past Gatewood Prize winners and our former editors who read at our reading and hung out with us. We look forward to many more years of sharing the words of emerging women and nonbinary poets!✨

We are thrilled to announce the winner of the 2025 Gatewood Prize, as selected by guest judge Ae Hee Lee, is “Voyage: Happening in an Egg” by Pearl McHugh!

Pearl McHugh is a gardener and florist living in New Orleans. She is a proud Lambda Literary Fellow and graduate of the University of New Orleans MFA program. This is her first book.

Congratulations, Pearl! Thank you to everyone who submitted to the Gatewood Prize—we read so many great manuscripts, and will release the short list soon to celebrate the finalists.