Winners of the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize: 2021

Over 1800 poems were submitted to the 2021 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, and each one had the author’s name meticulously removed from the manuscript and given an anonymous identification page. About one out of every 20 poems was selected as being worthy of the attention of the finalist judges: Clare MacQueen, Mariano Zaro, and Alexis Rhone Fancher. All three chose four poems that deserved to be ranked as among the very best they read this year for this award. Each of these twelve poems will appear in an issue of Cultural Daily during the next dozen days, beginning with John Amen’s poem today.

I want to extend a special note of congratulations to Sean Thomas Dougherty, whose work I first became familiar with when he read as part of a panel of poets addressing working-class culture at an academic conference in Long Beach. I believe the panel was organized by Renny Christopher, and Dougherty’s performance of his poems remains among the very best readings I have ever attended. It does not at all surprise me that he wrote a poem worthy of this prize, and I hope this award helps to call more attention to his writing.

Here are the winners and finalists for the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, 2021:

Winner & 3 Finalists Chosen By Judge Clare MacQueen:

WINNER: “Mourning Jewelry (San Francisco, February 2021)” – Rebekah Wolman

Finalists:

“Self-Portrait as Wine Glass” – Angele Ellis

“Duck” – Jen Karetnick

“LDR” – Jennie Miller

Winner & 3 Finalists Chosen By Judge Mariano Zaro:

WINNER: “In the Room Next Door How Many People Have Died” – Sean Thomas Dougherty

Finalists:

“Uprooted” – Trish Hopkinson

“Elsewhere Meanwhile” – Laurinda Lind

“The Ropes” – Michele Herman

Winner & 3 Finalists Chosen By Judge Alexis Rhone Fancher:

WINNER: “No Longer July” – John Amen

Finalists:

“Leap of Faith” – Beth Copeland

“There Will Be Birds” – Susan Jewell

“You Should Probably Date Me” – Matthew DeGroat

And this is a list of semi-finalists:

Rasha Abdulhadi
Jeff William Acosta
Marissa Ahmadkhani
Chukwuebuka Alu
Owen Auman
Erica Bernheim
Onastasia Beshara
TEE BLISS
Marisela Brazfield
David Capps
Laton Carter
Martin Cossio
Judy Crowe
Bill Cushing
Colin Dardis
Steve Denehan
Obed Ebenezer
Joshua Effiong
David Egede
Michael Emmanuel
Jesse Fleming
Jean Golden
Gael Granados
Brynesha Griffin-Bey
Manar Haseeb
sheldon Herman
Beatrice Hussain
Obasiota Ibe
David Icenogle
Wendy Ingersoll
Luke Johnson
Soon Jones
Judy Kaber
Flyn Kerr-Munley
Yessica Klein
Don Krieger
Aondosoo Labe
Norma Laughter
Helene Lois
Burtola Longchar
Zachary Lussier
FABIYAS M V
Katie Manning
Jeremy Martin
Abuchi Modilim
Joanne Monte
Maggie Morris
Lisa Mullenneaux
Erin Murphy
Natasha Moses Mwampashe
Akinola Olupayimo
Mayowa Oyewale
Mandira Pattnaik
rob plath
Vanessa Poster
Jessica Purdy
Bill Rector
Ana Reisens
Alun Robert
Natasha Saje
Simran Singh Rathi
Lanette Sweeney
Marianne Szlyk
Kelly Grace Thomas
Sarah Totton
Emma Trelles
Sherre Vernon
Sean Winn

At random, I picked a name from the semi-finalist list, just to see what might pop up about them and their poetry. Here is what I found on the poet Katie Manning.

Katie Manning, Ph.D., is the founding editor-in-chief of Whale Road Review and a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She teaches a variety of writing and literature courses, specializing in poetry and women writers, with intersecting interests in linguistics, 19th century British literature, and 20th – 21st century American literature. She is the author of Tasty Other, which won the 2016 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, and her fifth chapbook, 28,065 Nights, is available from River Glass Books. Her poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, december, The Lascaux Review, Kahini Quarterly, and many others. Find her online at www.katiemanningpoet.com.

Congratulations to everyone on this list. As all of you can see, anonymity did not preclude talent and hard work from catching the attention and approval of the judges.

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