photo by: Lawrence Transit

The five winners of Lawrence Transit's third annual poetry contest.

Five poets chosen from an annual poetry contest will see their work displayed on the city’s electric buses for the next year.

According to a press release from Lawrence Transit, the five winners of the Lawrence Transit Poet Laureate program will have their work displayed on a bus along routes taken by the buses, and they include:

• Sneha Nair, the poet laureate of Route 11

• Jen Fernandez, the poet laureate of Route 12

• Alice Pulsinelli, the poet laureate of Route 2

• Megan Gragg, the poet laureate of Route 1

• Whit Bell, the poet laureate of Route 8

The winning poems were selected by poet and professor at the University of Kansas Megan Kaminski. Kaminski said the winners chosen for 2026 have written poems that transform the everyday experience of transit “into something luminous–celebrating the familiar faces, the meaningful stops, and the quiet moments of connection that make our routes through the city feel like routes home.”

“These works remind us that belonging is something we create together through our daily encounters, through the simple act of making space for one another as we move through our city,” Kaminski said in the release. “Our buses carry stories in every language, lives traveling toward hope and home, and these poems honor that beautiful complexity.”

To read the winners’ poems, visit https://assets.lawrenceks.org/transit/2026Poems.pdf.

To plan a trip on the bus or get more information, visit www.lawrencetransit.org or call 785-864-4644.