It is my pleasure and honor to present the winning poems of the Pinesong Awards for 2021: Poet Laureate AwardPreliminary Judge Taylor ByasFinal selection by Jaki Shelton GreenWinner:Piecework by Susan AlffFinalists:The Children’s Section by Laura AldersonSynagogue 1964 by Joanne DurhamCompost by Janet FordGarage by Maura HighFruit by Jo Ann HoffmanThe Day After Christmas by Sandra …
Author Archives: Craig Kittner
Last Call and a Final Hint
The submission period for the Pinesong Awards for 2021 ends at midnight. Please email your entries by then. As I settle in to process the entries that have come in over the last several days, let me give you a final hint: you don’t have to send all your entries at the same time. If …
the Internet Poetic
Early last year, when Italy was the first country to issue stay-at-home orders, I came across a video on Twitter. It showed the tenants of an apartment complex standing on their balconies and making music together across the empty space of a courtyard. There was no commentary, no explanation. Just the shakiness of a handheld …
Big Ole Comprehensive Guide to the Contests
This post gathers information and inspirations for all 11 contests, with definitions of each award category and a list of links for further exploration. If you are seeking guidance for your entries, you will find it below. Please note that all line counts should include the title, blank lines (after the title and between stanzas, …
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Welcome Lindsay Rice
This year’s Poetry of Love judge is Lindsay Rice of Kansas City. Regarding how the challenges of 2020 have impacted poets, she writes: When things get rough, is it the poets who are listening? Are they the ones who are peering into the corners of what is and isn’t true? Are they the ones quietly …
Control
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I think most of us believe we have more of it than we really do. Or at least we believe we should. So that feeling out of it feels either really wrong or totally liberating. 2020 has shown how easy it can be for it to slip …
Barbara Sabol, “slaking that yearning for connection.”
Barbara Sabol is our judge for the Ruth Morris Moose Sestina Award for 2021. In responding to my question of how the events of 2020 have impacted the role of the poet, she writes: The Transformative Power of Poetry in the Year of Covid-19 The best work of poetry is to render the personal universal, …
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Tanya McDonald, “so many haiku about masks”
Our Bloodroot Haiku Award judge is Tanya McDonald. Here is what she has to say about the current role of haiku. The challenges of 2020 have affected us all, but as a haiku poet and editor, I don’t feel that the role of haiku poets has changed from what it was a year ago. Our …
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Introducing Davis McCombs
Davis McCombs will be judging our Mary Ruffin Poole Award for poems on American heritage, nature, or siblinghood. He has this to say about the role of the poet: Even though the challenges and upheavals of 2020 have been unprecedented, I do not believe that the role of the poet—or of the poem, for that …
Leatha Kendrick “the huge unknown of everything…”
Leatha Kendrick is the author of five poetry collections, most recently And Luckier, from Accents Publishing. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Exit 7, Tar River Poetry, Appalachian Heritage, New Madrid Review, the Southern Poetry Review, the James Dickey Review, Still: An Online Journal, the Baltimore Review, The Southern Women’s Review, and in …
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