Not long ago, Drew alumna Dara Laine Murray (C’09) won the annual 2026 John and Eileen Allman Prize for Poetry from the “Bellevue Literary Review” for her prose poem titled “Telling the Bees.” After anonymous review, one winner from each poetry, nonfiction and fiction category is awarded the prize and is then featured in the literary issue. Her winning piece will be published in the 50th issue of the literary review, coming in spring 2026.
Murray is a poet now based in Baltimore, though she is originally from New Jersey. Her work has also been published in the “American Poetry Journal,” the “Pine Hills Review” and more.
Murray mentioned that her education at Drew directly affects her career as the director of evaluation at The Trust for Public Land, which is a national nonprofit. She said that her behavioral science major provided her with skills that became the basis of her current work.
In regard to her writing, it is typically centered around loss and the changes loss can make on many aspects of life, and her piece, “Telling the Bees,” further demonstrates this.
When asked about the inspiration for her poem, she said, “I can’t remember whether the practice of ‘telling the bees’ was something I learned growing up on a farm with beehives or something I read later in life that simply stayed with me.” She went on to say that after she suffered the loss of her father, she felt compelled to tell the bees at her childhood home what had happened. “That’s when this poem began,” said Murray, “It grew out of trying to make sense of grief that didn’t feel speakable.”
Murray stated that this poem aimed to be the words she could not say during her grief, and that in her process of grieving, she noticed “grief changes how you see the world–colors, sounds and even time feel different” and navigating these changes was a difficult and seemingly impossible process. Yet, with her poem, she was able to “articulate that shift without having to explain it directly.”
Murray stated that she had been writing before, during and after her time at Drew, though she never considered it more than a pastime or side hobby. However, after winning this award, she stated, “I’m deeply honored and grateful to everyone involved–the sponsors, the editors and the judge. It made me feel like what I’ve been writing this year is real and meaningful, not just to me but to a broader audience.”
She also highlighted the importance of understanding the pain that comes with this success, as her dad was a large part of her life, and he would have been the first she told of her award. She described this moment as “a little more bitter than sweet. But that’s kind of grief in a nutshell: you can’t have it without also having love.”
Murray is currently working on a few poetry collections, and she will have poems featured soon in the “Westchester Review,” the “LEON Literary Review,” the “After Happy Hour Review” and the “Lindenwood Review.”
Casey Bush is a sophomore majoring in psychology and minoring in English: writing and communication.
