Tupelo Press is especially delighted to announce that Mark Doty has selected Ted Lardner of Gates Mills, Ohio as winner of the 2013 Sunken Garden Poetry Prize for his chapbook manuscript,
We Practice For It.
The Sunken Garden Poetry Prize is a prestigious national poetry prize for adult writers. Established in 2002, the Prize has drawn submissions from around the country that have been judged by renowned poets such as Martha Collins, Patricia Smith and Tony Hoagland. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize, an introductory reading at the Summer 2014 Sunken Garden Poetry Festival (check out the Festival here), and publication of a chapbook, to be designed, published, and distributed nationally by Tupelo Press.
Ted Lardner's work has appeared or is forthcoming in 5am, Arsenic Lobster, Flyover Country Review, The Normal School, Poet Lore, Tupelo Quarterly, and other journals.Tornado, published in 2008, was the winner of the Wick Poetry Center's chapbook competition. Passing by a Home Place, also a chapbook, was published by Leaping Mountain Press in 1987. A yoga teacher at Cleveland Yoga, and a professor of English at Cleveland State University, Ted lives with his family in Gates Mills, Ohio.
Mark Doty named two runners-up:
Stacey Balkun of Fresno, California -- Eppue Si Muove
Rebecca Kaiser Gibson of Marlborough, New Hampshire -- Opinel
Other Finalists:
Tina Cane of Rumford, Rhode Island -- Once More With Feeling
Linda Dove of Monrovia, California --This Too
Kara van de Graaf of Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- Dear Satellite and Spitting Image
Matthew Minicucci of Champaign, Illinois -- Small Gods
Dan Murphy of Los Angeles, California -- False Book of Rhyme
Judith Pacht of Los Angeles, California --The Sun Falls Too
Linda Pennisi of Syracuse, New York -- Miniscule Boxes
Carol Potter of Corinth, Vermont -- The Miss Nancy Papers
Virginia Chase Sutton of Tempe, Arizona -- Tilt-A-Whirl
John Suroweicki of Amston, Connecticut -- Janice Who Was Tall
Semi-Finalists:
Mary Jo Amani of Swannanoa, North Carolina -- The Descent of a Woman: Fables from a Marriage
Andrea Carter Brown of Los Angeles, California -- Cloud Studies: Hudson River School
Kristen Case of Farmington, Maine -- On Being-With
Sue Chenette of Toronto, Canada -- What We Said
Gibson Fay-LeBlanc of Portland, Maine -- Stay/Stray
Jan Freeman of Ashfield, Massachusetts -- Silence
Lucia Galloway of Claremont, California -- The Garlic Peelers
Diane Glancy of Monrovia, California -- The Long of All That Is Going
Eve Grubin of London, England -- The House Of Our First Loving
David Brendan Hopes of Asheville, North Carolina
-- In a Summer of Almost Too Much Light
David Koehn of Pleasanton, California -- Field of View
Anatoly Molotkov of Portland, Oregon -- Your Life As It Is
Barbara Mossberg of Pacific Grove, California -- Fat Lady Flying
Daniel Polikoff of Mill Valley, California -- Reed Music
Saara Myrene Raappana of Marshall, Minnesota -- Milk Tooth, Levee, Fever
Hal Sirowitz of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- Jumping for Love: Fat and Thin Poems
Jeffrey Thompson of Farmington, Maine -- Self Portrait in Nine Generations
Harry Waitzman of Congers, New York -- The Last Dragon in Chinatown
Sincere congratulations to the winner, runners-up, finalists and semi-finalists, and special thanks to all who entered this competition and, in doing so, help spread the word about the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, and who join, by your writing, the tireless, solitary, and so-important work of making poetry.
Please bear in mind the Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize for a First/Second Book of Poetry, accepting submissions now through April 30th.
We have had some exciting firsts: Our first poets from Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bengali) wrote during three separate months last year. One poet participated while traveling in Israel, poets wrote through every major holiday, and we included a sponsored high school student for the first time, a Scholastic Writing Award winner, who never missed a day!
