About

The Oberon Poetry magazine is a literary journal published by the Oberon Foundation, 
a nonprofit arts organization on Long Island.

Annual Oberon Poetry Prize

Is judged anonymously and is given for an unpublished poem in any style.

Annual Oberon Herbert Poetry Award

Celebrates  poems that best reflect the main qualities of Zbigniew Herbert’s poetry:
direct language, strong moral concerns and semantic transparency.

Introducing Viberon

Over the last twenty years that Oberon Poetry Magazine has been publishing poems selected for a judged competition, we have noticed interesting changes in the form and content of some submissions. A growing number of the poems, especially by younger authors, sounded like song lyrics and came to life while chanted aloud, becoming vibrant ballads or rap poems. After long deliberation, we decided to start a new non-judged section of our magazine, called Viberon, inviting the authors, as well as the readers to take part in a live performance during our award ceremony.

Since we have been planning Viberon for the last few years, we would like, with the authors’ permission, to include some poems that were previously submitted but not published in Oberon. We hope you will enjoy Viberon when it appears in our 2025 edition.

STAFF

Mindy Kronenberg, Editor
Mindy Kronenberg is an award winning writer whose poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in hundreds of publications in print and online, the US and abroad. Her writing accolades include film, video, theater, and her work has been featured in art installations. She teaches writing, literature, and arts courses at SUNY Empire College and has conducted workshops in the community through Poets&Writers, BOCES, and the Walt Whitman Birthplace.

Ludmila Melchior-Yahil
Ludmila Melchior-Yahil is a political scientist, author, editor and translator who has collaborated with Oberon Magazine from its founding and joined its editorial team in 2014. Thanks to the demands of her professional and personal life, she has lived in many cultures and learned many languages, including Polish, Russian, Latin, French, English, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew. She contributed to  Oberon several translations from Polish (2005; 2012; 2014) and, in her role as an editor, strives to expand the magazine’s  promotion of both American and world poetry.

Jan La Roche
Jan is a poet and fine art photographer whose poetry was first published by Oberon Poetry magazine. Her photographs have been exhibited at Gallery North and other galleries on Long Island. She had served as Managing Editor of Oberon Poetry magazine for five years, with Claire Nicolas White as Editor, then became the Editor for two years. Currently she is the Treasurer for the magazine.

Jackie Raven, In memory
Jackie Raven was a dancer, a lyricist and a poet. She was one of the first members of the Oberon Foundation and the creator of its magazine. Jackie died of breast cancer in 2001 and we celebrate her life by publishing this annual collection of contemporary poetry. We miss her radiance, her wit and her spunk, and we still cherish and are inspired by her poems. The Japanese say: nakutezo hitowa koishi-karireru - with time her absence is felt more." - Ludmila Melchior-Yahil

Special thanks:
George Booth, cartoonist
Best known for his funny and original cartoons in THE NEW YORKER, has generously
gifted Oberon Foundation several drawings for use in the magazine including our logo.
Check out his movie coming soon