poemeleon

It was hard to choose, made only slightly easier by the restrictions placed on the nominations (no full-length collection out, no appearance in last year's anthology), but seeing as tomorrow is the deadline and I can deliberate no more, here are our two nominees for the University of Virginia, Merdian's, 2008 Best New Poets anthology:

• Kristen Orser, for "Minnows" (The Prose Poem Issue)
• Benjamin Vogt, for "Portraiture at Blanks' Photography -- Weatherford, 1978" (The Form Issue)

Congratulations! And best of luck.

Please join me in welcoming the newest member of our editorial staff, book review editor Tom Hunley. If you would like to submit a review copy of your book to Poemeleon please send an e-mail to editor (at) poemeleon (dot) org.  

From Mr. Hunley's bio:

[He is] ...currently an assistant professor in the English department at Western Kentucky University and the director of Steel Toe Books. His poems have appeared in TriQuarterly, New York Quarterly, issues of Rattle, Poetry East, Connecticut Review, and other journals. His latest books are My Life as a Minor Character (Pecan Grove Press, 2005), and Teaching Poetry Writing: A Five Canon Approach  (Multilingual Matters LTD. ). His book of poems about new fatherhood, Octopus, won the Holland prize and will be published by Logan House Press in 2008.

Tom Hunley's work was previously featured in Poemeleon, volume I issue 2 (poetry, the ekphrastic issue), and volume II issue 1 (book review, issue devoted to poems in form).

Volume II Issue 2 of Poemeleon, the Prose Poem Issue, has launched!

Featuring: Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Cherryl Floyd-Miller, Ron Klassnik, Alexander Long, Sarah Maclay, Cecilia Woloch, and many others, as well as Ann E. Michael's essay "The Eye and the Page", and reviews of several collections of prose poems.

While you're there, visit our bookstore for some tasty holiday treats!

The Editors -- Cati, Maureen, and Ren

Little Fires, Christina Lovin’s second chapbook was a top ten finalist for the Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Poetry Series and will be published in early 2008.

Lovin was also recently named recipient of the Southern Women Writers’ Conference Emerging Poet Award, and will participate in the SWWC at Berry College in Georgia in late September. Her sonnet crown, “Event Horizon” placed third in the Women Who Write Annual Poetry Award and will be published in the annual anthology, Calliope. Another sonnet crown, “Clear Cut” (written during her time as writer-in-residence at the Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon), was “Commended” in the 2007 Margaret Reid Award for Traditional Forms.

She was recently invited to a four-week residency (May 2008) at Footpaths House Artists’ Retreat on the island of Flores in the Azores, Portugal. Lovin returns as a residence fellow to Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in December of this year to continue work on her current project.

Today is the last official day to submit to the prose poem issue. Please go to the submissions page to upload your document (and be sure to read the guidelines carefully).

And remember to check out the contest!