JC Andrews, a Ph.D. candidate in English and creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the winner of the 2026 Yale Younger Poets award, a prestigious competition that aims to bring greater attention to America’s most promising new poets.
Andrews’ award-winning manuscript, Of an Ilk, will be published by Yale University Press in March 2027. It will be the 121st volume in the Yale Series of Younger Poets since its inception in 1919.
“I feel plain and immense gratitude that my book will live among so many of the books I have leaned on throughout my life in the Yale Series of Younger Poets,” said Andrews. “It is such a gift to have these poems, poems I have built with the people I love most in the world, be seen and cared for in this way. Thank you all for believing in my work and for believing in me.”
Andrews is the author of the chapbook, Trillion Amber Trumpets (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2026). Her work can be found in Gulf Coast, The Massachusetts Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and a master of fine arts degree from Indiana University.