In announcing the Winner, Runner-up, and Finalists for the Brittany Noakes Poetry Award, proceeds benefiting the Live Your Dream Award granted by Soroptimist International of Rittenhouse Square, I want to stress what high quality work we received among the over 500 poems reviewed. As the person who narrowed it down to ten, along with the help of Allison Sylvester, I believed strongly each of the finalists had a chance at winning. Each of these ten poems were fantastic and utterly beautiful, so good they redeemed the use of platitudes in efforts to describe them.
Every one of you who shared, donated, and entered made this award of $1,000+ we raised for a woman in need to pursue her educational dreams possible. I truly think we all won a little something in seeing how everyone could come together in the name of making an unknown woman’s life better.
J.C. Todd was given a terrifically difficult task of choosing the winner, whose poem would be made into a broadside by artist and poet MaryAnn L. Miller, and runner up, who would receive a one year subscription to fabulous Bone Bouquet Journal.
Congratulations to our finalists and their stellar poems.
Emily Cole: Allegheny County, 1888: Ava Remembers Her Canaries
Susanna Kittredge: Summer Camp
Irene Mathieu: Theory of Multiple Theories
Shawna Kay Rodenberg: Little Debbie Repeats: Open Your Eyes…
Barrett Warner: All the Latest Talk in Paradise Concerning Butterflies
And our runner-up, may he find inspiration among Bone Bouquet Journal‘s pages!
Christopher Citro: Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled With Shrieks
And a standing ovation to our winner:
Lisa Grunberger: Genesis: Beginning the In
Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting more about these ten fabulous people and their poems, in random order. I hope you enjoy learning more about why their work was chosen and who inspires them to write. I certainly did!
Shevaun Brannigan 