NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (PRWEB) April 15, 2018 -- Winning Writers is pleased to announce the results from its 15th annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, judged by Soma Mei Sheng Frazier with assistance from Jim DuBois. Karen Harryman of Los Angeles, California won the Tom Howard Prize of $1,500 for a poem in any style or genre, for "A Word Like Rat". A.T. Hincapie of Colorado Springs, Colorado won the Margaret Reid Prize of $1,500 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style, for "From the Mouth of Kitsee's Inlet". 3,223 poems competed from around the world.
"A Word Like Rat" meditates on family secrets, from an aunt's cosmetic tricks that fascinate a child, to the complicated and hard-to-describe grief when an estranged parent dies. Frazier commented, "This dexterous poem ambushed me...As much as it contains the dirt—the speaker's distress in the wake of her father's solitary death—it also reflects the sky, and within that sky all our rising prayers for control over the uncontrollable."
"From the Mouth of Kitsee's Inlet" is a poem sequence about the passage of time in places where land gives way to water, and where family landmarks are eroded and recycled by natural processes over centuries. Frazier said, "This loose corona of American sonnets is no outdated artifact. 'From the Mouth of Kitsee's Inlet' is as bold and modern a crown as any you might admire on a drag queen strutting the stage."
13 Honorable Mentions of $100 each went to Sylvia Adams, Katie Bickham, Richard Brook, Trent Busch, Teri Foltz, Rata Gordon, Atoosa Grey, Curtis LeBlanc, Mary K. O'Melveny, Jeanne-Marie Osterman, Kathleen Spivack, Michelle Tibbetts, and Eliot Khalil Wilson. The top 15 poems and judge's comments are published at WinningWriters.com.
The 2018 contest is now open through September 30, 2018. See guidelines and enter here.
In addition to the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, Winning Writers sponsors the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest, the North Street Book Prize for Self-Published Books, and the no-fee Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest. Writer's Digest has named Winning Writers one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers" (2015-2017). Join our 106,000 followers on Twitter.
ADAM COHEN, WINNING WRITERS, https://winningwriters.com, +1 (866) 946-9748, [email protected]
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