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Award-Winning Poems: Spring 2017
Welcome to my spring selection
of award-winning poems, highlights from our contest archives, and the
best new resources we've found for writers. These quarterly specials
are included with your free Winning Writers Newsletter subscription.
In this issue: "Le mani" by Vittorio
Sereni, translated and illustrated by Julian Peters.
—Jendi Reiter, Editor
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HUSBAND AWAY
and EVERYTHING WORTH SAVING IS SAVED
by Caroline Cabrera
Winner of the 2016 Hudson
Prize
Entries must be received by March 31
Black Lawrence Press gives this $1,000 award for a manuscript of poems
or short stories. Cabrera's winning poetry collection is forthcoming
this year. These deadpan poems have the stream-of-consciousness quality
of social media threads while taking on the timeless poetic topics of
love, illness, and death.
I'M NOT A
RACIST
by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Winner of the 2016 Saturnalia
Books Poetry Prize
Entries must be received by April 1
This open poetry manuscript contest awards $2,000 and publication by a
press whose mission is to "encourage the publication of literature
of a non-commercial and challenging nature." Charleston's
forthcoming Telepathologies was the most recent winner. In this
collage poem, he strings coded racist remarks together, disclosing more
than the speaker wants to admit: "I mean, personally,//I don't SEE
color. I'm so sorry, I really didn't see you there."
KITES
by Robert Gibb
Winner of the 2016 Marsh
Hawk Press Poetry Prize
Postmark Deadline: April 30
This open poetry manuscript contest gives a top prize of $1,000 and two
finalist prizes of $250, plus publication. Gibb's After
was the most recent winner. This plain-spoken poem observes the cycles
of youthful hope and disappointment that would be familiar to Charlie
Brown from "Peanuts".
IMAGINATION and
other poems
by Christine Gosnay
Winner of the 2016 Stan and
Tom Wick Poetry Prize
Postmark Deadline: May 1
This prestigious first-book prize from Kent State University gives
$2,500 and publication. Gosnay's Even Years was the most recent
winner. These poems turn mental states into landscapes where sun, shade,
and pleasure promise a simplicity that they don't deliver.
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Deadline: March 31. Sponsored by Cogswell
College. Submit an unpublished short story or work of
creative nonfiction, up to 7,000 words. The winner will receive:
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Publication online and in the
print issue of COG, as well as a $1,000 prize
·
A blurb about your short story
by NPR/PRI's Snap Judgment host Glynn
Washington
·
Your story adapted
as an animated short film, 2D animation, graphic novel, or
series of interpretive illustrations by students in Cogswell's
celebrated Digital Art & Animation Program and Digital Audio
Technology Program.
Check out the details—including
a link to the full submission guidelines—at www.cogzine.com.
Please enjoy this animation
made from "The
Last Gun" by Anne Harding Woodworth, a 2015-2016 COG
Poetry Award winner:
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Postmark deadline: May 15
The Blue
Lynx Prize, $2,000 plus publication, is awarded for an
unpublished, full-length volume of poems by a US resident or citizen.
Send manuscript of at least 48 pages, a $28 reading fee plus SASE (for
notification) to Lynx House Press, P.O. Box 940, Spokane, WA 99210, or
submit online via Submittable.
Please make checks payable to Lynx House Press.
The 2016 winner was Ralph Burns
for his collection but not yet. Past judges
have included Yusef Komunyakaa, Melissa Kwasny, Robert Wrigley,
Dorianne Laux, and Kathleen Flenniken. More details at www.lynxhousepress.org.
Please enjoy "Unfinished
Figures" by Dave Nielsen, our 2015 winner, from his book
of the same name.
In Frederic Bazille's "The
Terrace at Meric,"
the outline of a woman
sitting on a bench:
ghost-like, in the shade
of a very straight trunked tree:
you get the picture
it is the outline of a dream.
And the shade of the tree is dark,
in contrast to the hot sun
on the oleander bushes,
so that the woman becomes
a dark thought.
And there, in the window,
at the far back of the world,
in the window of the big house,
another outline,
this one not as sharp, so that it seems
there was one ghost the artist was sure of,
and then one that he wasn't.
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This extraordinary set of
autobiographical essays gives insight into a black woman's life in the
arts: everything from joining the Black Panthers to avoiding
African-American chick lit.
Juanita (Virgin
Soul, 2013) grew up in Oakland, California, in the 1950s.
She remembers a "goody-goody" childhood of reading, spelling
bees, and chores. America at the time was "a Jell-O & white
bread land of perfection and gleaming surfaces," she notes in her
essay "White Out"; the only blacks on screen played mammies
and maids. She joined the Black Panthers at San Francisco State in 1966
and became a junior faculty member in its Black Studies department—the
nation's first. In perhaps the most powerful piece in the collection,
"The Gun as Ultimate Performance Poem", written after the
death of Trayvon Martin, Juanita sensitively discusses the split in the
Black Panthers over carrying guns. She liked guns' symbolic
associations and even kept one in her purse while working at a post
office. But she now recognizes the disastrous consequences of
romanticizing a weapon: "It was Art. It was Metaphor. It was
loaded with meaning and death." In another standout, "The
N-word", she boldly explores the disparate contexts in which the
epithet appears: in August Wilson's play Fences, in
comedy routines, and intimately between friends. "It's not problem
or solution; it's an indication," she concludes. The title essay
contends that black women are de facto feminists because they're so
often reduced to single parenting in poverty. Elsewhere, she discusses
relationships between black men and women, recalls rediscovering poetry
as a divorcée with an 8-year-old son in New Jersey ("Tough
Luck", which includes her own poems), remembers a time spent
cleaning condos, and remarks that Terry McMillan has ensured that a
"black female writer not writing chick lit has an uphill
challenge."
The author refers to herself as
"an observational ironist," and her incisive comments on
black life's contradictions make this essay collection a winner.
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"In a literary market
crowded with Fast Food, Winfred Cook's debut novel Uncle
Otto is like literary Soul Food. Cook distinctively writes
with a very fresh, strong and unique voice that is reminiscent of
Ernest Gaines and Jamaica Kincaid. Uncle Otto is a very brave
undertaking whose path even seasoned writers may have been reluctant to
journey. Cook's Uncle Otto is a throwback to
the southern quilt makers of yesteryears. From chapter one, page one,
Cook brilliantly and effortlessly sews the pieces of an African
American family together, ultimately unveiling a master heirloom in the
form of the unforgettable story of Uncle Otto. Uncle
Otto is a rare gem which tells the story of the conviction
and strength of the African American family and patriarch, which are
far too often overlooked in the literary community. BRAVO!!!!"
—Tezira Nnabongo, PhD Attorney, Hollywood, California
"In weaving fiction and
family history alongside historical events, Winfred Cook offers a
brilliant literary debut in Uncle Otto. The novel is
complex in plot and character development, displaying one of the most
sophisticated analyses of black migration from southern rural settings
to the urban north during the early 20th century in the United States.
The joy, struggle, and tragedy that pervades Uncle
Otto is the best that contemporary novelists have to
offer."
—Ingrid Banks, author of Hair Matters: Beauty, Power
and Black Women's Consciousness and Associate Professor of Black Studies,
University of California at Santa Barbara
"...the novel is an
important account of one family's story. While the events may not all
be true in fact, they are true to life, and represent a period of time
and a perspective that is underrepresented in literature. That alone
makes it worth a second look."
—Kirkus Discoveries
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Dwarves and golems, Fates and
minotaurs, metamorphoses, murder, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. L.S.
Johnson delivers a provocative and original short story collection that
ingeniously blends myth and nightmare. Whether it concerns the efforts
of an infertile witch to construct a golem-baby, or a daughter's quest
to understand a father's guilt and a mother's supernatural
infidelities, or a woman's violent association with a group of possibly
imaginary but nonetheless dangerous little men, each story in this
remarkable collection demonstrates the limitless capacity of
intelligent speculative fiction to enthrall, inspire, and amaze. Available
now at Amazon,
Kobo,
Barnes
& Noble, and iBooks.
Read a
free excerpt.
"I can say without
hesitation, reservation or exception that this is a collection full of
brilliantly written and powerfully affecting stories, each of which
profoundly impressed me in different ways ... Johnson's Vacui
Magia is a book that never goes quietly, and it is
wonderful for it." – The Future Fire Reviews
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Red Blood, Yellow Skin is the story of a young girl's survival in war-torn
Vietnam during the First Indochina War between France and Vietnam, the
civil war between North and South Vietnam, and the later American
involvement in the Vietnam War. Linda Baer was born Nguyen Thi Loan, in
the village of Tao Xa, Thai Binh Province, in North Vietnam in 1947.
When she was four years old, the Viet Minh attacked her village and
killed her father, leaving Loan and her mother to fend for themselves.
Seeking escape from impoverishment, her mother married a rich and
dominating widower who was cruel to his free-spirited and mischievous
stepdaughter. Loan found solace in the company of animals and insects
and escaped into the branches of trees.
In 1954, her family chose to
relocate to South Vietnam, rather than live under the yoke of communist
North Vietnam. When Loan was thirteen, she ran away to Saigon to flee
the cruelty of her stepfather and worked at menial jobs to help her
family. At seventeen, she was introduced to bars, nightclubs, and
Saigon Tea. At eighteen, she dated and lived with a young American
airman. Two months after their baby was born, the airman returned to
America, and Loan never heard from him again. She raised their son by
herself. However, time healed her heart, and she eventually found true
love in a young Air Force Officer, whom she married and accompanied to
America.
Red Blood, Yellow Skin is a story of romance, culture, traditions, and
family. It describes the pain, struggle, despair, and violence as Loan
lived it. The story is hers, but it is also an account of Vietnam—of
those who were uprooted, displaced, brutalized, and left homeless. It
is about this struggle to survive and her extraordinary triumph over
adversity that Baer writes.
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Two Natures is currently touring two dozen book review and M/M
fan blogs thanks to Embrace
the Rainbow, a blog book tour site specializing in LGBTQ
authors. To coincide with the tour, the Amazon
Kindle and iBooks
editions of Two Natures are
on sale for $0.99 through March 17.
TOUR DATES
·
March 13: Triple A
(exclusive excerpt)
Stop by the tour sites for
insights into the book and tips on writing!
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Third in the
award-winning Carolina Slade Mystery Series
A Governor keeping secrets. A
drug lord bent on revenge. And a DEA agent out to make her case, no
matter who gets hurt in the process. Once again, Carolina Slade finds
herself caught in a web of lies and murder, only this time the case
involves a Governor's family secret, and a history of poisonous peanuts
with the ability to kill.
"Carolina Slade is the
real deal—Southern charm, a steely determination, and a vulnerability
she'll never admit to. Slade is at her absolute best in C. Hope Clark's
Palmetto Poison so hold on for the ride!"
—Lynn Chandler-Willis, bestselling author and winner of the
Minotaur Books/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition
"Author C. Hope Clark
writes an offbeat thriller with fascinating characters. The pages
crackle with energy, the heroine ever struggling to balance her job,
her family, and her emotions. She doesn't like being told what to do,
and repeatedly gets herself in hot water by challenging authority. She
makes mistakes, any one of which could be fatal. This is the third book
in the Carolina Slade series and in my opinion the best. Author Clark
is maturing as an author, her writing becoming more complex, deeper and
richer. Her characters are more lifelike, her plots more intriguing.
You would never figure out where this one was going without knowing in
advance, but in the end it all makes sense. Looking for an unusual
thriller with a South Carolina setting and a marvelous cast of
characters, this is one novel you need to get hold of."
—Louis N. Gruber, Vine Voice Amazon Reviewer
On sale March
1-15: $1.99 at all online venues. Winner of the Killer Nashville Silver
Falchion Award for best traditional mystery. www.chopeclark.com
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Here are some of our favorite
newly added resources at Winning Writers. For a full list, see our Resource
pages.
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Douglas
Kearney
BUCK
STUDIES
Read these energetic, challenging poems once quickly for their frantic
virtuosity of sound and rhythm, and again slowly to tease out the
allusions in each compressed line. "Buck" was a racial
slur in post-Civil War America for a black man who was
sexually powerful and defiant of white authority. By juxtaposing it
with "Studies", Kearney mocks the pseudoscientific white
gaze, and also demands a place for black subjectivity in the canon of
high culture. This second theme emerges most strongly in the two poem
cycles that bracket the collection. The first reworks the Labors
of Hercules through the legend of 19th-century African-American
pimp Stagger
Lee (the subject of numerous murder ballads by artists as
varied as Woody Guthrie, Duke Ellington, and The Clash). The second
cycle replaces Jesus with Br'er Rabbit in the Stations of the Cross. As
great satires do, these mash-ups make us ask serious questions: Who
gets to go down in history as a hero instead of a thug? Would an
oppressed people be better off worshipping a trickster escape artist,
rather than a martyr?
Charlie
Bondhus
HOW THE
BOY MIGHT SEE IT
Finding one's identity is just the beginning of the struggle, in this
updated and expanded version of an award-winning gay poet's debut
collection. With lyricism and an empathetic imagination, Bondhus
claims a place for himself within multiple traditions, daring to
juxtapose a comic tryst with a resurrected Walt Whitman, a disciple's
erotic memories of Jesus, and the lament of a post-Edenic Adam. New
work in this edition includes the poem suite "Diane Rehm Hosts
Jesus Christ on NPR", narrated by a very human messiah who
"would speak about what God shares with humanity...I mean
loneliness".
Reena Ribalow
THE
SMOKE OF DREAMS
This stately, melancholy collection of poems is steeped in sensual
memories of bittersweet love, be it for a holy city or a forbidden
affair. Her roots are planted in Jerusalem, sacred and war-torn, harsh
and captivating. Her more personal poems show the same mix of pleasure
and pain in romantic relationships. One way or another, history is
inescapable.
Phillip B.
Williams
THIEF IN
THE INTERIOR
This debut collection from Alice James Books is a formally innovative,
visceral and intense collection of poems through which the American
tradition of violence against gay and black male bodies runs like a
blood-red thread. From concrete poetry collages to experimental
sonnets, Williams makes us contemplate murder as a twisted outburst of
intimacy across caste lines, and love as a battle cry. Winner of the
2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
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"Trayvon"
by Madeline Baars
First Prize
2015 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest
"A
Small Fortune"
by Roberta George
Honorable Mention
2015 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest
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ProLiteracy,
the largest adult literacy and basic education membership organization
in the nation, believes that a safer, stronger, and more sustainable
society starts with an educated population. For more than 60 years,
ProLiteracy has been working across the globe to create a world where
every person can read and write. Learn
more.
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very pleased with the results of our solo blast with Winning Writers. It generated a significant volume of leads for us
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Development Manager, BookBaby
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Reprinted by kind permission of
Julian Peters. See his translation below. See more
comics. 
The Hands
These hands you raise in
self-defense:
They cast an evening over my face.
When you slowly open them, there ahead
The city's a crescent of fire.
On the future sleep
They'll be blinds striped with sun
And I'll have lost forever
That taste of earth and wind
When you take them back.
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