We are thrilled to announce the winner of the 2026 Lost Blonde Chapbook Contest: Carmen Barefield, and we cannot wait to release "makeshift" this fall!

Carmen Barefield (she/her) is a poet and writer living in Salem, Massachusetts. She is a fellow of Roots. Wounds. Words. and The Watering Hole. She was also longlisted for the Massachusetts Poetry Festival’s First Poem Contest. Some of her work can be found in Voicemail Poems, The Elevation Review, Popshot Magazine, Kissing Dynamite, and Poetry Quarterly.

Congratulations, Carmen!