It’s
that time of year again! Poet Lore, The
Writer’s Center’s semi-annual poetry magazine, reveals which of its amazing contributing writers have been
nominated for the 2014 Pushcart Prize.
Founded in 1976, the Pushcart Prize has become “one of the most
influential projects in the history of American publishing,” according to
Publishers Weekly. Every year, Pushcart
Press invites small press editors to submit up to six works that they have published
that year. Pushcart editors then use
these nominations in the making of their prestigious annual anthology, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small
Presses. Recipients of the
Pushcart Prize over the years have included Junot Diaz, Raymond Carver, Tim
O’Brien, and Peter Orner.
Poet Lore is
proud to announce its six nominees for the 2014 Pushcart Prize, whose poems and
author bios are listed below. All of these poets use language and form in such
a way that leaves the reader completely entranced and embody Poet Lore’s mission to create poetry
that fuels our natural need for discovery. Congratulations to all the nominees!
Cornelius Eady - "Otis Redding, Being Pulled
from Lake Monona"
CORNELIUS EADY is the author
of eight books of poetry, including Hardheaded Weather: New and
Selected Poems (Putnam, April 2008). His second book, Victims
of the Latest Dance Craze, won the Lamont Prize from the Academy of
American Poets in 1985; in 2001 Brutal Imagination was a
finalist for the National Book Award. He has received the Prairie
Schooner Strousse Award and fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim
Foundation, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation, and the Rockefeller
Foundation. He co-founded the Cave Canem summer workshop/retreat for African
American poets and is a professor at Notre Dame University.
Patrick Ryan Frank - "Body Double"
PATRICK RYAN FRANK is the
author of How the Losers Love What’s Lost, which won the 2010 Intro
Prize from Four Way Books, and The Opposite of People, due out in
2015. He was a recent Fulbright fellow to Iceland.
Joseph Ross - “When Your Word is a Match”
JOSEPH ROSS is the author of
two books of poetry: Meeting Bone Man (2012) and Gospel
of Dust (2013). His work appears in many anthologies and journals. He
teaches English and creative writing at Gonzaga College High School in
Washington, DC, and writes regularly at JosephRoss.net.
Sherod Santos - "I Was at One Time Close to
Home"
SHEROD SANTOS’s latest book
is The Intricated Soul: New and Selected Poems (W.W. Norton,
2010). He lives in Chicago.
June Frankland Baker - "During the Downpour,
at the Pond"
JUNE FRANKLAND BAKER lives
in Richland, Washington. Her poems have appeared in such anthologies as The
Blueline Anthology and Woven on the Wind, and in numerous
magazines, including Commonweal, Notre Dame Review, Poetry
Northwest, Slant, and Tampa Review.
Christopher Presfield - “Elegies for the
Fallen”
CHRISTOPHER PRESFIELD is the
co-author of Gray Air (Cedar Hill Publications, 1999) and Dawn
in the Big House (Pygmy Forest Press, 2006). His poems have also appeared
in Poet Lore, Alaska Quarterly Review, Poetry, Briar
Cliff Review, Rattle, and elsewhere. He has received five PEN
Prison Writing Awards of varying placement over the years.
