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! 

Rejections can be sweet...

However, their critique of the manuscript let me down very easy!  I am going to frame it and post it by my writing desk for encouragement!  Thank you, Thirty West Editorial panel!

Excerpts:

"These pieces are unique, fresh, and beautifully written. The muses here have constructed some unique narrative voices and superbly distinct pieces ..." "Supremely creative."

"...one must be widely-read and knowledgeable of literary, artistic, and historical touchstones to fully catch all of the allusions here. That makes the target audience for these pieces much less universal than some other pieces."  "The unique thoughtfulness and dedicated execution of these pieces far outweighs any audience concerns."

"Not only is this magnificent on a conceptual level, but the beauty in the writing lies in its use of literary devices throughout. For instance, the internal rhythm and rhyme in “Guinevere to Arthur” is so seamless as to seem easily done..."

"..the level of intellectualism and foresight, the knowledge and exploratory nature of poetic structure and elements, and the skill and artistry in execution make this a great piece that any publishing company should be honored to print."

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!