With the publication of her first book, Bridgton Academy Humanities Instructor Isabel Neal is in very rare company. Thrown Voice won the 2025 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, the longest-running literary prize in North America, and was released March 10th.
“I’m so grateful that my debut has joined this amazing series. It’s truly a dream,” says Neal. The project took shape as Neal pursued her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. “It is gratifying to have the book out in the world,” Neal adds, “and to share it with readers who can encounter it anew.”
Thrown Voice draws on images from the natural world and engages tensions between mystery and clarity, restraint and wildness. “The speaker in this book is sometimes focused on precise description and concrete imagery,” shared Neal. “At the same time, I am always interested in poetic language’s capacity for invention and transformation.”
Though the book’s earliest draft was Neal’s MFA thesis, she knew it had further to go. “I am not the same person now as I was when I began these poems,” Neal admits. “For me, revision requires time immersed in the work, and time away, in order to understand my own questions and preoccupations more clearly.”
The time, dedication, and commitment paid off: Neal completed revisions and sequenced the manuscript in the summer of 2024 while a Lighthouse Works fellow at Fishers Island, and submitted it in September for consideration to the Yale Prize. As the longest running literary award in the United States, the Yale Series includes some of the most recognized and celebrated poets in the country, from John Ashbery and Adrienne Rich to Brigit Pegeen Kelly and Eduardo C. Corral. Prize judge Rae Armantrout, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010, selected Neal’s manuscript. In the book’s Foreword, Armantrout writes, “Patient observation is one of her (Neal’s) gifts. Not the only one either. The word choices in these lines are fresh and striking…”
As pleased as she was to join such a stellar literary cohort, “publishing is a long process,” notes Neal. “Even after the manuscript was finalized, I was making decisions and having conversations about cover art, acknowledgements, permissions, and credits.”
Now is the time to share it with others. Neal went on a book tour over the recent Bridgton Academy spring break in March, returning to her alma maters, Pitzer College in Claremont, California and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan for readings and book signings. “At Pitzer, I spent time with my former professor’s advanced creative writing class, which was a highlight,” shares Neal. “This work often feels solitary, so it’s been especially meaningful to be able to celebrate with others and hear from them how the book is reaching them.” Neal’s spring book tour concludes with an event in Cambridge April 21st, and she plans to organize summer events in Western Massachusetts and New York City. Meanwhile, she is at work on the next collection and will be a Warren Memorial Foundation fellow at Hewnoaks artist residency this June.
Thrown Voice is available anywhere books are sold. The Bridgton Academy community is so pleased and proud of this outstanding accomplishment, and we wish Isabel well as she takes on her next writing projects.