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Beautiful Obstacles by Diane Averill "These are deeply felt poems with traces of the soul all through
them. It does my heart good to know the book, these poems, are in
the world. They bless the reader who comes upon them. Vivid, startling,
committed, these poems are gifts Diane has received and in turn
gave to us." – Li-Young Lee Amazon
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Schooled Lives – Poems By Two Brothers, by Barry Benson and Steve Benson "The Benson brothers have put together not only a fine book of poems well worth keeping close but also a strong testament of faith in those subtleties of blood that can elevate the ordinary into song." Gary Gildner . . . "This is what poetry was meant to be, neither overly-sentimental nor veiled in obscure imagery. The poems read like music you have discovered as you search across the radio dial. Once found you stay tuned, turning the pages for more. This is adult poetry with risky passion, psychological pain, sensual thirst and the ache of longing." Amazon order info |
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Oracles for Night-Blooming Eccentrics, by Nancy Berg "Right out of the headlines, participant in, on and of the edges of the dangerous and 'bejeweled' world, listener of sages ubiquitous, public radio opinionated, cable tv hysterical, spinning on the deck of the luxury liner of night itself . . . and a penchant for small dogs and oracular insomnia, this is Nancy Berg's poetry, seeking its soulmate inside an emerald and unlike anything else being written, 'crackling like early electricity,' heavy with art . . . abundant with literary grace and charm." – Rustin Larson author's site Amazon order |
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Weavings, by Mary Ellen Branan Mary Ellen Branan served with the Peace Corps in Poland from 1994 to 1996. Her poems "return again and again to test what stands between us, never quite giving up on what might connect us. They cherish contact as well as the possibility of genuine sympathy, proving the tender spot between the self and the other, either human or animal. Weavings is a quiet, important book of poems." - Richard Lyons. "Mary Branan's work chronicles life ... with a warmth and sophistication that only time and artistic sensitivity can bring." - Karla K. Morton, Texas Poet Laureate Amazon order info |
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Flying Backbone, by Christopher Buckley Flying Backbone collects Christopher Buckley's poems from 1979 through 2007 responding to the life and paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe. Buckley explains that he was compelled by "The vitality she found in everything-from bones in the desert to skyscrapers in Manhattan – the way the work suggests a practical cast, one that cherishes the earth and praises the strength of the human spirit as it endures here." "He has an exquisite ear for language... – Library Journal Amazon order info |
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The Holy Trinity of Chiles, by Scott Caputo "Join Scott Caputo on a pilgrimage where we are offered nothing less than the full measure of being human. Accessible, these poems are made from the whole cloth of experience. Caputo never shies away from his religion or the marketplace. Astonishment lies down with humor. In Holy Trinity of Chiles the wanderer and the word-lover find nourishment." -Kit Kennedy author's site Amazon order |
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Dreams and Dreamers, by Lynn Cohen “Lynn Cohen’s poems are tender elegies for lost youth, passion and ease. Graceful and economical, these lyrics offer bright glimpses of city and country, travel and remembered haunts. They are stories in miniature, deftly moving back and forth in time, lit with flashes of insight. Childhood anticipates future scars; middle age looks back to simpler ardor. Cohen uses a compact, elegant style to create a lucid world of longing.” - Martha Hollander, Winner of the Whitman Award under W. S. Merwin. Amazon order info |
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Rumors of Shore, by Paul Fisher The wildness of the natural world, and of the spirit, just barely contained; the elemental and the ephemeral; a primal darkness full of stars; fistfuls of tart black fruit-this is the stuff out of which Paul Fisher makes his poems, poems that are mysterious and musical and often terrifyingly beautiful, carved out of the strange light of this world "into luck, luminosities, pearls." – Cecilia Woloch. His is a soft, evocative, welcoming voice, resonant with a deep humility toward this world. author's site Amazon order |
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A Split Second of Light, by Stewart Florsheim "Stewart Florsheim is one of those rare poets who has it all: chillingly beautiful language that draws the reader into myriad worlds of “riveting silence” and “prayer bells”; great courage to face the darkness, and the strength and wisdom to see that death and life are inextricably intertwined. This is an extraordinary book." – Louise Nayer, author of Burned: A Memoir author's site Amazon order |
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The Short Fall from Grace, by Stewart Florsheim "Stewart Florsheim has written a Moebius strip of a book, starting with the nearly unspeakable grief of being the child of ill-matched parents, and proceeding by turns into the amorous education of a young man, the perspicuity of a middle-aged aesthete (many of the poems here take their cue from great paintings), and finally marriage and fatherhood, which loop back with irony and insight to the beginning of Florsheim's narrative arc. The Short Fall From Grace, then, doesn't occur so much in a straight line—the way an actual fall might—as it does in a circular fashion, owing its trajectory not to gravity but to the irresistible pull of time." –Thomas Centolella author's site Amazon order |
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Entering the Word Temple, by Diane Frank "Diane Frank can enter, at will, that region where visions reveal themselves like snapshots. She transcribes these as jewel-like images on the page, through a vocabulary steeped in the natural world and the insistent predilections of the human heart." – Nancy Berg "Diane Frank crafts more than words, she brews word medicine. I feel her syllables like salve penetrate my skin to heal deeply hidden wounds." – Robin Lim author's site Amazon order |
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The Winter Life of Shooting Stars, by Diane Frank "Tomas Transtromer once said that his poems are meeting places for souls. In this world where one does not always feel entirely at home, it is with a sense of recognition that one enters a Diane Frank poem, with all its exotic quirks, and rather than feel it to be strange, feel it to be a habitable, companionable place of kindred spirits." – Tom Centolella "What stays with me is that the poet depends on touch rather than vision to 'see' the real world. The narrators use their fingers and fingertips to make sure of reality; often the eyes are used to look beyond reality." – Daniel Langton author's site Amazon order |
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Rhododendron Shedding Its Skin, by Diane Frank "In Diane Frank's poems, the beautifully sensual language is like the dense fur on a winter animal. Something powerful moves and shifts beneath the surface. On this inner level Diane controls more than language. Her dimensions are so primal that the rhythm and textures of her voice could swell the moon." – Corinne Erly author's site Amazon order |
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Blood Rivers, by Lisha Adela Garcia Lisha Adela García's splendid debut full-length collection of poems follows the legacy of blood-spilled, spared, reviled, holy, singled-out, intermingled, and sustaining. These are poems of cultural border crossings and personal boundary breaches as seen from the female perspective. Her "whole life is the geography between...two countries, two cultures, two languages," the Rio Grande, "hugging both sides" of her story. Amazon order info |
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Copperhead: Tantric Lessons On Love, by George James These are offerings of healing for the dance of sexuality and spirituality, a dance of light and shadow that has troubled seekers for eons. "George James' Copperhead has a powerful teaching about higher love in a world that has become profane. Each poem is a lesson and a gift." – Diane Frank. author's site |
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Peeling the Onion, by George James George James has written a book of transformational poems about the fivefold spiritual journey, where everyone will find a facet of their own soul. Peeling the Onion’s poems reveal universal life issues we all experience in some form. The wisdom, inspiration and healing offered is simple, direct and easy to assimilate by everyone regardless of their life’s path and level of personal and spiritual development. author's site Amazon order |
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During Our Walks, by Dan Langton A series of monologues by the village explainer to a recent arrival. Magical storytelling, beautiful wordsmithing. Lyrical and entertaining from beginning to end. author's site Amazon order |
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The Wine-Dark House, by Rustin Larson The Wine-Dark House is a triumph by Rustin Larson. The poems are evocative and finely wrought, brimming with detailed, sensual images and delicately crafted lines. The poet leads us gently, yet with a firm purpose, on a tour of shadowed memory, both distant and more recent, that explores memory's hard truth. Larson is courageous in that he is not willing to take refuge in the ordinary. With consummate skill, inspired wit, and a rare compassion, these poems observe, reflect, and startle, reminding us of the necessary human endeavor to both honor and challenge the occasions of our daily lives. author's site Amazon order |
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The Geometry of Splitting Souls, by Robin Lim "Robin Lim is a woman of staggering energy, passion, goodness and talent. Her poems take all four of those traits, and weave them into wonder." — Elizabeth Gilbert Order online at Amazon, or call by phone:1st World Publishing at 641-209-5000. |
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Walking Backwards, by Ken McCullough This is a book about relationships: with each other and with the natural world. Ken McCullough demonstrates a profound understanding and acceptance of the balance between light and dark in the universe. . . his words are passionate and elegant, and meditate on life from the perspective of one who has lived it fully. McCullough speaks to us with wit and humility, as prophet, trickster, father, lover, friend and teacher. Amazon order info |
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Cradling Monsoons, by Sarah McKinstry-Brown Cradling Monsoons "pits tension between reality and desire, cultivating a world rich with lived imagination. In Sarah McKinstry-Brown’s grasp, language tackles the world of marriage, pregnancies and family with a complex love capable of cradling frustrations and grief with a patience that can ride through any monsoons and still trust there will be air to breathe soon enough." —Lisa Gill, Author of The Relenting "These poems make art from life, and reveal the making and living of life as an art of terrible power and tenderness. These poems are pure muscle, fierce heart." —Lee Ann Roripaugh, Author of On the Cusp of a Dangerous Year author's site Amazon order |
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What We Love, by Ed Meek "Ed Meek digs underneath the broad lawns and narrow minds of the suburbs to unearth a deeper and at times darker, truth about ourselves and our lives." -Doug Holder. "His poems are brilliant, fresh, and full of subtle surprises." - James Chichetto. "Ed Meek's poems ... show us what's real and true, whether it's terrifying or funny as hell." - Bill Littlefield, NPR Amazon order info |
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That Certain Blue, by Sharon Lask Munson Sharon's first full-length book of poems invites the reader into a world of compassion and tenderness, family traditions, affirming a life of grace and quiet joy. author's site Amazon order |
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The Houses are Covered in Sound by Louise Nayer Louise Nayer's poems are full of vision, wisdom, vulnerability and beautifully crafted language. "She has sharp imagery and honesty in her work, and her poetry is in touch with life, as poetry is supposed to be." – John Logan "Louise Nayer is a markedly gifted poet." – Robert Creeley. Amazon order info |
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Under a Prairie Moon, by Susie Niedermeyer In Under a Prairie Moon, Susie Niedermeyer doesn't so much observe the natural world as experience it flowing through her. In a poetic voice that is at once down-to-earth and visionary, she explores inner and outer landscapes as they intersect and shape one another. Many of her poems are rooted in close, delicate observation of plant and animal life in the rural Midwest and are animated by the poet's acute sensitivity. These poems carry the weight and the wisdom of lived experience: how memories accumulate and cast their shadows on the present; how illumination and understanding can come suddenly, in a moment. Amazon order info |
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Petroglyphs, by Fred Ostrander Fred Ostrander is a poet who understands a dedicated and diligent approach to the use of language. His poetic vision, subtle and engaging, is powered by the natural rhythms of a confiding voice, a voice that conveys a man of deep integrity and humanity. The poems in Petroglyphs are intimate and universal, lyrical and intelligent. They call the reader back, again and again, to wander around their word and sound landscapes. "To begin reading Fred Ostrander is to enter an alternate, intenser world where the great images rule and the tides of the universe palpably lift (and drop) us all." – John Hart Amazon order info |
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Mural, by Alice Rogoff Winner of the 2004 Blue Light Book Award, Alice Rogoff lives in San Francisco. She has been an Editor of the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal since 1984, and received an Honorable Award in the Artists Embassy International Dance-Poem Contest. She belongs to the Northern California Media Workers Guild, is the Recording Secretary for the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, and leads drama workshops for low-income adults. Amazon order info |
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What’s Left is the Singing, by Mary Kay Rummel Mary Kay Rummel spins words into mysticism and magic. "Not to be ordinary," she was drawn into the convent where she was forbidden to read fiction because the Superior didn't like it. She was able to leave when "words whispered in that wind/telling her to go forth and read, to never ask again." Set free, she read and wrote and traveled, visiting early Irish history and myth. Throughout her book, bells chime in celebration as her words become exquisite lyric poems. Rummel's work allows us to feel how. . . "light slips/through fingers into every fold of sky." author's site Amazon order |
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Unexpected Guests, by Stephen Schneider “Steven Schneider is an extraordinary poet. Each of the poems in this collection is crafted with inspiration, dedication and a skill that exemplifies the best of contemporary poetry. Unexpected Guests is a powerful and beautifully written book that explores the meaning of faith, remembrance and creativity. ” - Marjorie Agosìn ... "For people who have been fans of Stephen Schneider's poetry all along, Unexpected Guests is the major collection they have been waiting for. For others, this is a wonderful poet to get to know well. It doesn't take long to make friends with these poems, and they'll become friends you'll want to visit again." - Rustin Larson author's site Amazon order |
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Mysterious Light, by Joyce Uhlir Delving beneath the surface of things, Joyce Uhlir's poems explore and shed light on a multi-dimensinal world of nature where sight, sound, feelings, smell and taste mix like paint on a pallet, to the delight of body and soul. Sensuous and spiritual at the same time, this light often seems like x-ray vision, making the opaque transparent and beautiful. Joyce's painting, Bones of Zion, graces the cover of her book. Her poems radiate beauty and wisdom. They paint pictures with words and are filled with "mysterious light." author's site Amazon order info |
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Word Ghetto, by Loretta Diane Walker "Loretta Diane Walker writes with compassionate wisdom and insight-her poems restore humanity." -Naomi Shihab Nye. "Loretta Walker's Word Ghetto is an astounding book, full of wisdom, compassion, and masterfully woven word magic. Her language speaks with a rich tapestry of emotion, and her poems sing like a saxophone playing the music of her soul. Loretta Walker's vision is huge - she speaks for a whole community of people who are marginalized by the circumstances of their birth. Her poems offer healing, vision and hope." -Diane Frank, Author of Blackberries in the Dream House and Entering the Word Temple. Amazon order info |
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Wednesday After Lunch, by Will Walker "Will Walker has written a collection of poems so intelligent and clear that reading them I wake up-and find myself alive in the world. This is what art can do – and every time it happens it's a miracle. Here is a miraculous book-awake to what the Buddhists call the "full catastrophe" of living right now. If you want to feel yourself alive and in great company, buy this book and read it, and then pass it on." – Marie Howe "He writes with a keen eye, a generous heart, and an expansive spirit, both embracing the everyday and transcending it. His poems always make me see with new eyes. They are love poems to the world." –Thea Sullivan author's site Amazon order |
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Something About, by Andrena Zawinski "These are strong poems, brave works that are not afraid to identify pain-these poems come from an 'examined life'-we have a Book of Hours here that connects and wildly chronicles the 'givens' of a woman." -Rosaly DeMaios Roffman ... "The poems here are full of elegant and perceptive surprises; they are exacting in the way they seek out and find new uses for the language we know." -Susan Kelly-DeWitt. Amazon order info |
A list of chapbooks is available on the Contest
Winners page. |