I received a nice letter from Indiana Review yesterday informing me that one of my poems was picked as a second runner-up in the 2009 Indiana Review Poetry Prize by Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. It appears the other runner-up poem is by the same author that won the prize–Tom Christopher. Congratulations to Tom and the finalists. His poem is guaranteed publication in a forthcoming issue of Indiana Review. As a subscriber, I look forward to reading the poem.
I recently got the good news that one of my poems received an honorable mention in the Rattle Poetry Prize. According to the editor, the poem was selected from over 4,000 poems entered this year. It is particularly encouraging that they chose a poem that represents one of my recent attempts at breaking the “page barrier”–that is, writing a poem longer than one page. I look forward to reading the nine other honorable mention poems and, of course, the first-place-winner’s poem, when they are published in December. The $100 prize I plan to put toward–you guessed it–more poetry books.
I received a phone call yesterday from The Atlantic to inform me that I have received an honorable mention in their Student Writing Contest. I was encouraged to enter, in part, by their listing of Pacific University’s MFA program, in which I am currently enrolled, as one of the top five programs in the nation of its type. Unfortunately, according to a subsequent email, “while the editors will indeed be reviewing several of the winning manuscripts for potential publication in the magazine, there is no guarantee that any submissions will be published.” Shucks. Still, nice to receive a mention, and honorable at that, from our nation’s most intelligent periodical.
Here’s some good news I’m finally at liberty to share: one of my poems was selected as a finalist in the James Hearst Poetry Prize. It’s an honor, but more important is personally meaningful to me, to have a poem picked in a prize that honors Mr. Hearst’s memory. He was a teacher, mentor and friend to my father during his time as a college student in Iowa, and phrases like “how the hell do I know if there’s a rock in your field?” became synonymous in my upbringing with “be practical.” So, I guess this native California boy still has some roots stretching back into Iowa cornfields. It’s a privilege to play any part in such a fine continuity.
The poem will be available in the March/April issue of North American Review.
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A few months ago, I discovered that one of my poems that won the Poetry In The Windows V competition had been selected to be anthologized in a volume called Open Windows celebrating ten years of this biannual Los Angeles based competition. Due to a lack of udpated contact information, I just received word that the prepublication and book signing party will be held in Highland Park on April 17th. This competition, the poems, the poets, and the community spirit involved is truly a well kept secret in LA. I highly recommend checking it out and picking up a copy of the anthology.
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