POEMS & WRITING AWARDS
POEMS
Forgotten Things
after Dean Young
Imagine you put your face against store windows
selling paper flowers and wooden horses,
rooms filled with forgotten things.
You were made because two bodies forgot
the uncertainty of risk, ignored
recitation of kiss kiss tremble, a sermon
announcing the end of free love.
Love taught you to stand inside an ocean, feel the fish
smear their scales on wave after forgotten wave, all in the name of homecoming.
Love taught no manners,
fire set to someone’s orchard so you become peach jam for days. How absurd
to be given a mouth that craves fruit bruised into sugar.
The forgotten sun gored pulp, originally gnawed by rain and the inch worm’s
grotesque bite. How easy it is now to chase chickens
wearing the reddest dress, legs running loud like forgotten pianos
being banged into existence.
218 The Paris-American
Originally published in Vinyl magazine
Originally published in Passages North
WRITING AWARDS
Each Knuckle with Sugar, winner of Driftwood Press Open Reading Poetry Contest, debut collection, Driftwood Press, February 2024
Poem “Instant Hymn” nominated for a 2024 Pushcart Prize, Driftwood Press Anthology
Massachusetts Poetry Community Awards Recipient: April 2023
Part of the 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, celebrating Massachusetts based poets for their work and contributions to the literary community
Finalist: Driftwood Press Adrift Chapbook Contest, November 2022
First Runner Up: 2022 Slate Roof Press Elyse Wolf Prize, August 2022
Top Four Finalist: River Heron Review Editor’s Prize, February 2021
Semi-Finalist: 2021 Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize, Conduit Books, September 2021
Top Ten Finalist: Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition, September 2019 (Chapbook published in October 2020)
Short List Finalist: River Heron Review Poetry Contest, July 2019
Finalist: Yes Yes Books 45 Vinyl Chapbook Contest, May 2019
Finalist: St Lawrence Book Prize, February 2018
First Runner Up: Girls Like Us Chapbook Contest chosen by Aracelis Girmay, January 2018
First Runner Up: Federico Garcia Lorca Poetry Prize, October 2016
Finalist: Split Lip Turnbuckle Chapbook Contest, Feb 2015
Semi-Finalist: Yes Yes Books 45 Vinyl Chapbook Contest, June 2014
Semi-Finalist: Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards Competition, Tucson, AZ March 2014
Invited to participate in Tucson Festival of Books Master Workshop at University of Arizona’s Poetry Center with Rae Aramantrout
“Birds Are Loosely Folded Napkins Thrown Into the Sky” chosen by Brenda Shaughnessy for 2013 Best New Poets Anthology
Poem “Bang-Bang” Nominated for 2012 Pushcart Prize from Westchester Review
Winner of Westchester Review Writers’ Under 30 Contest, Westchester Review Issue 6, Winter 2012