CODA
An annual poetry volume from The Fifth Corner.
Derived from the musical term for a concluding passage, and from the Latin cauda, meaning tail, a coda is a final movement that lingers after the main body has ended.
Each issue of The Fifth Corner concludes with a single poem selected through the Coda Poet Prize. Beginning in 2026, this commitment to poetry expands through CODA, an annual volume collecting the winning and shortlisted poems selected across the year’s prize cycles.
Published each January, CODA serves as a record of the poems that most distinguished themselves throughout the year. While the winning poems first appear in the pages of The Fifth Corner, CODA gathers them alongside the shortlisted works, preserving a broader portrait of the voices and sensibilities that shaped the prize.
CODA
Annual 2026
The Inaugural Volume
Publication January 2027
The inaugural volume will collect the winning and shortlisted poems selected across the three 2026 Coda Poet Prize cycles.
Printed in a limited first edition of 100 numbered copies, CODA marks the beginning of an annual poetry publication dedicated to celebrating exceptional dark contemporary poetry.
Contents Include:
Winning Poems
Shortlisted Poems
Contributing Biographies
Shortlisted poets selected for publication in CODA receive a $100 CAD honorarium.
CODA Artist
Each volume of CODA features a single cover artist selected from the artists commissioned by The Fifth Corner during the publishing year.
Unlike the journal, which contains commissioned artwork for each story, CODA presents a single visual gesture: one commissioned artwork on the cover, chosen to represent the volume as a whole. The poems remain flowing and uninterrupted within.
Published by The Fifth Corner Literary Society.
CODA
2026 – The Inaugural Annual
The permanent record of a literary year.
Issued once.
One Hundred Numbered Copies. Issued Once.
Each edition includes a signed Certificate of Authenticity typed on a 1927 Royal typewriter and recognition on The Fifth Corner’s Supporters Page.
Created as an archival object for collectors and patrons of contemporary literature.
Once sold out, this edition enters the archive.