English Chair KB Kinkel Wins Open Chapbook Competition

CSW is proud to share that English Department Chair KB Kinkel is the winner of the 2025 Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition for "Blood Machine," an original collection of poems. As winner of this highly sought-after honor, KB will be awarded a cash prize, and his work will be printed and published by Finishing Line Press. 

KB joined the CSW community in 2021. His poems, reviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Tupelo Quarterly, Ninth Letter, Prelude, The Rumpus, Poetry Online, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He was a semifinalist for the Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize (Gasher Press, 2023) and was longlisted for the 2023 Frontier Award for New Poets (2023). He teaches English and creative writing at CSW. 

CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.