Sonnet shortlisted in the Better than Starbucks 2020 contest!

My previously published sonnet "Point of No Return" was shortlisted for the Better than Starbucks! 2020 sonnet contest. 

Better Than Starbucks 2020 Sonnet Contest

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              Winning poets receive:

              First Place $350.

              Second Place $100.

              Third Place $50.

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Out of more than 900 blind-read entries, a short list of 45 sonnets were chosen. From these, three winners and seven runner-up sonnets will be published.  So we all have close to a 1 in 4 chance! 

Good luck, fellow competitors! 

Sonnet For Her Husband by Max Gutmann

I Dreamt of a Broken Bird by Ciarán Parkes

The Rule by Michael Stalcup

Last Call by Kit Rohrbach

To the Person Who will be the Last to Speak My Name by David Rosenthal

In Living Color by John Beaton

A sackful of heads by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

James Holman by Timothy Sandefur
The Miller’s Daughter Gives an Exclusive on Rumpelstiltskin by Melissa Balmain

The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian

Disremembered by Lee Nash

Forms and Forming by Richard Wakefield

Drystone by Jane Boxall

Onset by Max Gutmann

The Point of No Return by Beatriz F. Fernandez

Forms and Forming by Richard Wakefield

Something That Was Once Lovely by Carlene M. Gadapee

Saturday morning by Mercedes Webb-Pullman

Obviously by Hibah Shabkhez

Made of Gauze by Donald Zirilli

Museum of a Former Marriage by Jennifer Davis Michael

Release by Tim Taylor

After Mom, Pop, and Older Sis Left the Circus by Devon Balwit

Ornithology and its Discontents by Enriqueta Carrington

Asylum for Joshua by Maroula Blades

The Assumption (Mary speaks) by Conor Kelly

Paper Town by Midge Goldberg

Viparinama by Terence Culleton

Street Dreams by Linda Banks

The end by Steve Lang

Salvage by Catherine Chandler

Sonnet for a 25th Wedding Anniversary by Carolyn Martin

For Trevion in the Local News byBarbara Loots

Vampire by Daniel Ranson

Metal on Metal by Elizabeth Faris

Sonnet for a Homeless Woman Named Beth by Debbie Hall

Winning by Daniel Ranson

Erasure Sonnet by Martin Cossio

Winter Ravens by Matthew King

Pigeon by Catherine Edmunds

Using Our Words by Brett Mertins

On a Theme From Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Mark J. Mitchell

Shoes by Andrew Kuck

Tree by John W. Steele

Bones by Mark McDonnell

Another Love Poem by Melissa Balmain

Pushcart Prize nomination surprise!

Thirty West Publishing House just nominated my sonnet "Blood Pacts" as one of their Pushcart Prize nominations for 2017!  I am floored and very honored!  I never imagined it would happen again so soon.  Many thanks to editor Josh Dale and others who took the time and effort to make it happen!
Congratulations to my fellow nominees, too! 

Thirty West Publishing House's beautiful hand-bound chapbooks!

Thirty West Publishing House produces hand-bound chaplets and chapbooks.  As I previously posted, they recently chose my poem "The Surest Poison" as winner of their sonnet challenge (part of their celebration of National Poetry Month) and now editor Josh Dale is publishing a chaplet of all the weekly challenge winners!  It will include work from four different writers and four different genres/forms, and will include my winning sonnet as well as a second sonnet "Blood Pacts."  Many thanks to TWPH for their support of poetry and writers!  I would like to learn to make hand-bound chaps like these!  In Josh's picture, you see some of the tools he uses and the resulting chapbooks.

P.S.
If you look closely at the picture, you will see that my two poems happened to fall in the middle pages of the chaplet!

"The Surest Poison" wins Thirty West Publishing House's sonnet challenge

Many thanks to Thirty West Publishing House for choosing my poem, The Surest Poison, as winner of their sonnet challenge!  They are a micropress based in Philadelphia, which naturally appeals to me.  They will possibly re-publish this sonnet in a chaplet compilation of their contest winners.  This was a great way to celebrate National Poetry Month!

Red Bird Weekly Read site publishes my poem "Origins"

Red Bird Chapbooks, a respected publisher of multiple genre type chapbooks, featured my poem "Origins" on their "Weekly Read" column and their facebook site.  Many thanks to editor Sarah Hayes!

Red Bird does not limit itself to poetry chapbooks, so visit them to see all the possibilities they offer!

From their site:

"Red Bird Chapbooks is a venue for emerging and existing authors to bring forth small collections of their work in artistically appealing forms. We publish quality, handcrafted chapbooks, broadsides and pamphlets that introduce aspiring and inspiring writers and artists to a larger audience."

I'm very honored to be included in their list of published authors; the Weekly Read feature began in July 2016.  I heard about it via Trish Hopkinson's ever-useful blog!  I had also submitted a chapbook to them last year.

The Australia Times Poetry Magazine features "Bahia Honda Beach Conch" on their Facebook page.

The Australia Times Poetry Magazine has published a few of my poems: two in the October issue, "Inspiration" (a sonnet) and "The Last Thing I'll Lose" and now has accepted two more, and featured "Bahia Honda Beach Conch" on their facebook page!  It was accompanied by a beautiful picture of a conch shell. I wrote the poem right after I attended the Key West Literary Seminar Writers' workshop led by poet and FIU professor Campbell McGrath.

Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands anthology will include my poem "Point of No Return"

Shabda Press's anthology "Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands" will include my sonnet dedicated to Harry K. Daghlian, the first American (peacetime) casualty of the Atomic Age: "Point of No Return."

"Point of No Return" accepted by Spark, A Creative Anthology

Spark a Creative Anthology just accepted "Point of No Return," a sonnet in two septets honoring Harry K. Daghlian, Jr., the first American casualty of the Atomic Age.

I am very excited to be part of Spark's next volume. They have great contests which award not only cash prizes and publication, but also subscriptions and books!