CLARKSTON, Ga. — Clarkston poet Rupert Fike has been named the 2026 Georgia Author of the Year in the poetry collection category and the 2026 Passager Poet of the Year. The Georgia Writers Association announced at its 62nd annual awards presentation that Fike won for his book "All Things in Common: Poems From the Farm." Passager, a literary journal, hosts an annual poetry contest to select content for its issues. This year's contest drew 450 submissions, and Fike's entry of five poems was selected. "Fike's subjects are wide-ranging, from an experience of sitting in the dentist's chair to gardening, to the death of a friend, to the multicultural makeup of his hometown," Passager editor Rosanne Singer said. One of Fike's poems submitted to Passager is set in Clarkston, where he watched a mother and her child repeatedly cover profane graffiti on a sidewalk with grass clippings, only to see the wind blow the clippings away. His Georgia Author of the Year award, however, was given for a different body of work. "All Things in Common: Poems From the Farm" is a portrait of a Tennessee commune where Fike and more than 1,000 others lived in the 1970s. Each poem offers a distinct perspective or anecdote, from delivering babies to operating ambulances. "There are tercets and sonnets, and each one tells a story from a different point of view. Some of them are starry-eyed and true believers; some are pissed off and disillusioned," he said. The collection reflects the commune's ethic of…
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