Wow! We have some stunning entries. Right now, I have been given the “first round” of finalists — 54 names. And, I’m told, it was hard getting the list down to just 54. Some extraordinary talent for this inaugural poetry program. I’m thrilled to see that…thank you all.
The 54 names are listed below.
A quick update on the timeline: I hope to have a second round of finalists in hand by next weekend, and the short-list sometime next week. Ms. Solari will be out of the country until October 12th, so that may slow processing down. My plan, right now, is to know who the winner is by October 15th, give or take a few days. That’s about on target — judging tends to take a month or so.
So, enough from me. Here are the first round finalists:
Acquainted with the Cold — Lexa Hillyer
Advice for New Insomniacs — Donna Steiner
Marking This Blue Planet – Anna Yin
Breath Hold Break Point — Heather Derr-Smith
Breathing in the Night — Harry Newman
Caraway — Judith Zukerman
Sky Quarrels — July Cole
Confessions of a Word Processor — Matthias Regan
Crib Sheets — Rich Murphy
13 poems by Damon McLaughlin
Chock Theology — Ezra Feldman
Glass Boat – Ephraim Scott Saunders
Giving up the Ghosts – Dodici Azpadu
After Arik — Atar Hadari
Humon — Jayson Iwen
If a Body — Owen Lewis
In the Temple of the Lost and Found – Mary Morris
A Marked Man – Joseph Hutchison
Last Night of Maskmaking — Carolyn Moore
Ligature for Elegy — Lindsay Illich
Postscript to Home – Marj Hahne
Migrant Leaves – Miguel Saporta
The Next Time Art Seduces You — Carolyn Moore
Night Pearls — W.F. Lantry
The Heart that Reads – Norman Hindley
Six poems by James O’Brien
On the Desire to Levitate — Alison Powell
The Laundry Stone — Paul Brancato
Selection of poems by Hila Ratzabi
This Horse – Rebekah Stout
Red Sun Mother – Jennifer Givhan
Rim — Steve Lautermilch
Food Bed Gospel – W.M. Lobko
September Song — Nelson Blish
Sparks in Sequence — John Alexanderson
The Animal Husband – Arne Weingart
The Hand of Burning Prayers –Kirun Kaper
The Heaven & the Hangover — Katie Schmid
Where Orpheus Sings — Barbara Knott
Small, Buried things – Debra Marquart
Swimming the Nets – Becky Sakellariou
Minor Alchemies – Christina Hutchins
Paradise Impressions – John Laue
Crescent – Excell Hunter
Desperados – Jenifer E. Tener
Walking up the River – Mary Ellen LeClair
Dreamer at the Helm – Charles Atkinson
Dear Divorce – Sage Cohen
Selected poems by Deborah Matusko
Nine poems by Norman Wasserman
Selection of poems by Jude Nutter
Cross-Cross Here, Cross-Cross There — Doug Woodsum
Terminally Human – Barry North
The Sit Down – Alicia Ruskin