Greg Lewis won the 2026 Freddie Fisher Irreverent Wit Prize last night.
The prize is awarded to local writers who submit letters and poems to the editors of local newspapers.
It's named in honor of Freddie Fisher, who lived in Aspen in the 50s and 60s.
The award for local writers was announced on Tuesday for the first time in over a decade.
Lewis has been an Aspen local since the 50s. He won this year’s prize for a poem about the end of the Crystal Palace, called “Requiem for a Palace.”
He read an excerpt at the Paul JAS Center on Feb. 10 after receiving his award.
“I was home,” Lewis said. “The building is hollow now — harmony, lost to hardware. Only concrete bones remain, and they don't sing. They shiver with sorrow off-key. Too many years have passed. ... Oh, the gluttony of progress. Farewell, Crystal Palace. The owl has flown away, and what will tomorrow bring?”
Lewis says the award means a lot to him because it represents an “Aspen of the past.”
The JAS center sits above the historic Red Onion bar, which he referenced in his poem and acceptance speech.
“I wonder now, would Aspen be a richer community today if we had more onions and fewer diamonds?” Lewis asked. “For tonight, the Onion is back — sweet and tangy and delicious — and we are a community here. Locals gather to celebrate the irreverent soul of the world's greatest mountain town, and to honor the memory of the inimitable Freddy Fisher.”
Lewis joins other local columnists who have previously received the award, including Roger Marolt and Lo Semple.
Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman organized the first party to celebrate Fisher’s birthday and deliver the inaugural award in 2004.
“And so now, the Fishwit Prize is Aspen's oldest and most prestigious award for letters,” he said.
After a decade, the party fell off, but Poschman brought it bringing it back this year with the help of the Aspen Daily News, the Aspen Historical Society and Jazz Aspen Snowmass.
Poschman said this party is designed to be affordable for locals as more luxury businesses come to town and prices increase.
“It is important to reach out to the locals and have things for locals to do,” he said. “Because, quite frankly, I think most people you'll talk to will tell you they don't go out to dinner anymore because it's too expensive. They don't go for a cup of coffee anymore because it's too expensive, and that's tragic.”
Poschman assembled a group of judges who he thinks have “letter-reading taste” to judge the prize recipient.
keep track of what writers are submitting.
“Honestly, the stuff that came across spontaneously is my favorite, where people just submitted a funny poem or a letter, or a limerick, or maybe something poignant that's really uniquely Aspen. And those are all qualified.”
