OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS
JULIE SUK AWARD COMPETITION
BEST POETRY BOOK PUBLISHED BY A LITERARY PRESS IN 2024
Any poetry book published by a small, literary, or university press that holds a 2024 copyright is eligible. This contest is not open to commercial presses. Entries will be accepted from now until January 30, 2025. Final decisions won't be made until March or April 2025, so be patient.
Writers outside the U.S. may submit pdfs via email. [email protected].
If you are a finalist you will be asked to submit two copies.
To enter, mail 2 copies of your book (must have a 2024 copyright date) and $10 to Jacar Press, 6617 Deerview Trail, Durham, NC 27712. Use the Shopping Cart link below to pay, or Paypal direct to [email protected]
2023 Winner selected by Jaki Shelton Green
The Gathering of Bastards - Romeo Oriogun - University of Nebraska Press
2023 Finalists
What Small Sound - Francesca Bell - Red Hen Press
Cataloguing Pain - Alison Blevins - YesYes Books
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times - Taylor Byas - Soft Skull Press
I, Divided - Chelsea Dingman - LSU Press
Standing in the Forest of Being Alive - Katie Farris - Alice James Books
A Dream in Which I Am Playing with Bees - RK Fauth - Texas Tech University Press
If Some God Shakes Your House - Jennifer Franklin - Four Way Books
Unusually Grand Ideas - James Davis May - LSU Press
Otherlight - Jill Mceldowney - YesYes Books
The Gathering of Bastards - Romeo Oriogun - University of Nebraska Press
The Fears - Kevin Prufer - Copper Canyon Press
LoterÃa - Esteban RodrÃguez - Texas Review Press
Sentenced - Rebecca Schumejda - NYQ Books
Master - Simon Shieh - Sarabande Books
Buffalo Girl - Jessica Q. Stark - BOA Editions Ltd
The Wild Delight of Wild Things - Brian Turner - Alice James Books
2023 Longlist Finalists
The Abduction - Maram Al-Masri - White Pine Press
Everwhen - Anne Barngrover - University of Akron Press
What Small Sound - Francesca Bell - Red Hen Press
Cataloguing Pain - Allison Blevins - YesYes Books
I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times - Taylor Byas - Soft Skull Press
Green Knife - Stella Corso - Rescue Press
Yours, Creature - Jessica Cuello - JackLeg Press
Rain/Dweller - Risa Denenberg - MoonPath Press
I, Divided - Chelsea Dingman - LSU Press
Trailer Park Psalms - Ryler Dustin - University of Pittsburgh Press
Aster of Ceremonies - JJJJJerome Ellis - Milkweed Editions
Standing in the Forest of Being Alive - Katie Farris - Alice James Books
A Dream in Which I Am Playing with Bees - RK Fauth - Texas Tech University Press
With Little Light and Sometimes None at All - Richard Foerster - Littoral Books
If Some God Shakes Your House - Jennifer Franklin - Four Way Books
Reck - Leslie Harrison - University of Akron Press
Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area - John Hoppenthaler - Carnegie Mellon University Press
How News Travels - Judy Katz - Silverfish Review Press
Orders of Service - Willie Lee Kinard III - Alice James Books
Two Open Doors in a Field - Sophie Klahr - Backwaters Press
Unusually Grand Ideas - James Davis May - LSU Press
Otherlight - Jill Mceldowney - YesYes Books
Octobers - Sahar Muradi - University of Pittsburgh Press
The Gathering of Bastards - Romeo Oriogun - University of Nebraska Press
The Fears - Kevin Prufer - Copper Canyon Press
LoterÃÂa - Esteban RodrÃÂguez - Texas Review Press
Sentenced - Rebecca Schumejda - NYQ Books
Trace Evidence - Charif Shanahan - Tin House
Master - Simon Shieh - Sarabande Books
Buffalo Girl - Jessica Q. Stark - BOA Editions Ltd
The Wild Delight of Wild Things - Brian Turner - Alice James Books
Meltwater - Claire Wahmanholm - Milkweed Editions
Star-Tent: A Triptych - Amie Whittemore - Tolsun Books
Joan of Arkansas - Emma Wippermann - Ugly Duckling Presse
At the Lepidopterist's House - Chelsea Woodard - Southern Indiana Review Press
2022 Winner selected by Jaki Shelton Green
Refusenik - Lynn Melnick - YesYes Books
Refuesnik drags the willing disciple onto a landscape that refuses to slant truth in a culture of intentional blurriness. Lynn Melnick sifts survival through thread-bare seams and conjured mirrors that only poetry can stitch whole.
2022 Finalists
Bluest Nude - Ama Codjoe - Milkweed Editions
Coffin Honey - Todd Davis - Michigan State University Press
The Devil's Fool - Mary Gilliland - Codhill Press
Terra Incognita - Sara Henning - Ohio University Press
The Lantern Room - Chloe Honum - Tupelo Press
Sugar Work - Katie Marya - Alice James Books
The House You Were Born In - Tanya Standish McIntyre - McGill-Queen's University Press
Refusenik - Lynn Melnick - YesYes Books
Constellation Route - Matthew Olzmann - Alice James Books
Call it in the Air - Ed Pavlić -Milkweed Editions
Paradise - Victoria Redel - Four Way Books
summonings - raena shirali - Black Lawrence Press
Today in the Taxi - Sean Singer - Tupelo Press
Dear Selection Committee - Melissa Studdard - Jackleg Press
2022 Longlist Finalists
Hyperphantasia - Sara Deniz Akant - Rescue Press
You Can be the Last Leaf - Maya Abu Al-Hayayat, translated by Fady Joudah
Good Actors - Sommer Browning - Birds LLC
Bluest Nude - Ama Codjoe - Milkweed Editions
Coffin Honey - Todd Davis - Michigan State University Press
Only - Rebecca Foust - Four Way Books
How to Cut a Woman in Half - Janis Harrington - Able Muse Press
The Devil's Fool - Mary Gilliland - Codhill Press
Alone in the House of My Heart - Kari Gunter-Seymour - Swallow Press
Terra Incognita - Sara Henning - Ohio University Press
The Lantern Room - Chloe Honum - Tupelo Press
black god mother this body - Raina J. Leon - Black Freighter Press
Sugar Work - Katie Marya - Alice James Books
American Treasure - Jill McDonough - Alice James Books
The House You Were Born In - Tanya Standish McIntyre - McGill-Queen's University Press
Refusenik - Lynn Melnick - YesYes Books
Late Self-Portraits - Mary Morris - Wheelbarrow Books
Constellation Route - Matthew Olzmann - Alice James Books
Call it in the Air - Ed Pavlić -Milkweed Editions
Another Way to Split Water - Alycia Pirmohamed - YesYes Books
Paradise - Victoria Redel - Four Way Books
The Listening Skin - Glenis Redmond - Four Way Books
Beyond Stillness - Mark Roper - Dedalus Press
The Necessity of Wildfire - Caitlin Scarano - Blair
summonings - raena shirali - Black Lawrence Press
Today in the Taxi - Sean Singer - Tupelo Press
What is Otherwise Infinite - Bianca Stone - Tin House
Dear Selection Committee - Melissa Studdard - Jackleg Press
Raised Among Vultures - Molly Twomey - The Gallery Press
As She Appears - Shelley Wong - YesYes Books
Best book by a literary press. $500 prize. 2023 Submissions now open. See below for details
2021 Co-winners selected by Jaki Shelton Green
Your Crib, My Qibla - Saddiq Dzukogi - University of Nebraska Press
The poetics of the weight of an invisible tiny shroud inside a father's hands create doorways for a powerful meditation on loss. Saddiq Dzukogi offers an exhaustive literary manifesto of grief inside pages that sear with the voluminous vocabulary of sufferance.
Where the Wolf - Sally Rosen Kindred - Diode Editions
Sally Rosen Kindred shapeshifts witness and memory beyond the shadows that make us all hold our breath inside the dark portals where sufferance and joy change seats. This collection is superbly crafted with somber lyrical narratives that awaken and bury with an unflinching gaze.
2021 Finalists
Last Days - Tamiko Beyer - Alice James Books
Your Crib, My Qibla - Saddiq Dzukogi - University of Nebraska Press
West Portal - Benjamin Gucciardi - The University of Utah Press
Tethered to Stars - Fady Joudah - Milkweed Editions
Where the Wolf - Sally Rosen Kindred - Diode Editions
Pine - Julia Koets - Southern Indiana Review Press
Ordinary Psalms - Julia B. Levine - LSU Press
Gumbo YaYa - Aurielle Marie - University of Pittsburgh Press
Tender the River - Matt W. Miller - Texas Review Press
Dear Diaspora - Susan Nguyen - University of Nebraska Press
How We Arrive in Winter - Liz Quirke - Salmon Poetry
Brocken Spectre - Jacques J. Rancourt - Alice James Books
Philomath - Devon Walker-Figueroa - Milkweed Editions
2021 Longlist Finalists
Last Days - Tamiko Beyer - Alice James Books
Liar - Jessica Cuello - Barrow Street Press
Gun Shy - Jim Daniels - Wayne State University Press
Your Crib, My Qibla - Saddiq Dzukogi - University of Nebraska Press
Basic Needs - Vanessa Jimenez Gabb - Rescue Press
No Other Rome - Heather Green - University of Akron Press
West Portal - Benjamin Gucciardi - The University of Utah Press
Wild Juice - Ashley Mace Havird - LSU Press
Of Ocher and Ash - Eleanor Hooker - Dedalus Press
Tethered to Stars - Fady Joudah - Milkweed Editions
Where the Wolf - Sally Rosen Kindred - Diode Editions
Worldly Things - Michael Kleber-Diggs - Milkweed Editions
Pine - Julia Koets - Southern Indiana Review Press
Ordinary Psalms - Julia B. Levine - LSU Press
Gentefication - Antonio De Jesús López - Four Way Books
Pretty Tripwire - Alessandra Lynch - Alice James Books
History of Forgetfulness - Shahe Mankerian - Fly on the Wall Press
Gumbo YaYa - Aurielle Marie - University of Pittsburgh Press
For Daughters Who Walk Out Like Sons - Komal Mathew - Zone 3 Press
Death With Occasional Smiling - Tony Medina - Indolent Books
Tender the River - Matt W. Miller - Texas Review Press
Flowers as Mind Control - Laura Minor - BkMk Press
Dear Diaspora - Susan Nguyen - University of Nebraska Press
The Truffle Eye - Vaan Nguyen - Zephyr Press
The Art of Fiction - Kevin Prufer - Four Way Books
How We Arrive in Winter - Liz Quirke - Salmon Poetry
Brocken Spectre - Jacques J. Rancourt - Alice James Books
And If the Woods Carry... - Erin Rodoni - Southern Indiana Review Press
In the Morning We Are... - Andra Schwarz - Zephyr Press
Dead Dad Jokes - Ollie Schminkey - Button Poetry
Homes - Moheb Soliman - Coffee House Press
Walking the Mist - Marjorie Stelmach - The Ashland Poetry Press
Philomath - Devon Walker-Figueroa - Milkweed Editions
Among Elms in Ambush - Bruce Weigl - BOA Editions Ltd
The World's Lightest Motorcycle - Yi Won - Zephyr Press
To enter, mail 2 copies of your book (must have a 2022 copyright date) and $10 to Jacar Press, 6617 Deerview Trail, Durham, NC 27712.
You can pay online below:
Writers outside the U.S. may submit pdfs via email. [email protected].
If you are a finalist you will be asked to submit two copies.
2020 Co-winners Nandi Comer and Brian Komei Dempster
Final judge Jaki Shelton Green has selected two books as co-winners of the Julie Suk Award this year.
Nandi Comer, Tapping Out, Northwestern University Press
Tapping Out provides poetic insight into the inherent connections of Blackness... unfiltered ... unabridged...both past and present that does not just exist cognitively but also physically in our very bodies, in our very bones... in all the geographies where we are planted. Nandi Comer pulls us into the open mouth of a Lucha libre sky with assaulting imagery and language that soothes the welts and declares Black=Beauty=Power=Timelessness. The poems in Tapping Out are a cohesive, forthright, haunting freefall that caresses gravity like a feather.
Brian Komei Dempster, Seize, Four Way Books
Brian Komei Dempster provides a complicatedly nuanced and absorbing story of surrender, acceptance, and grace. Seize holds his son's epilepsy tenderly inside poetic depths of courageous breath, generational responsibility, and the searing beauty of witness where anguish becomes canvas. Each poem is a delicate narrative unhidden, uncensored, unmuted. The urgency and immediacy of Seize insists that the holiness of Brendan's life never become a ghost in his father's throat.
2020 Finalists
Megan Alpert, The Animal at Your Side, Airlie Press
Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue, Four Way Books
Sumita Chakraborty, Arrow, Alice James Books
Nandi Comer, Tapping Out, Northwestern University Press
Brian Komei Dempster, Seize, Four Way Books
Kirun Kapur, Women in the Waiting Room, Black Lawrence Press
Catherine Pierce, Danger Days, Saturnalia Books
Lauren Shapiro, Arena, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Adeeba Shahid Talukder, Shahr-E-Jaanaan: The City of the Beloved, Tupelo Press
Amy Woolard, Neck of the Woods, Alice James Books
2020 Longlist Finalists
Kazim Ali, The Voice of Sheila Chandra, Alice James Books
Megan Alpert, The Animal at Your Side, Airlie Press
Chad Bennett, Our New Feeling Is the Artifact of a Bygone Era, Sarabande Books
Tommye Blount, Fantasia for the Man in Blue, Four Way Books
Sumita Chakraborty, Arrow, Alice James Books
Marianne Chan, All Heathens, Sarabande Books
Nandi Comer, Tapping Out, Northwestern University Press
Cynthia Cruz, Guidebooks for the Dead,Four Way Books
Brian Komei Dempster, Seize, Four Ways Books
Sean Thomas Dougherty, Not All Saints, The Bitter Oleander Press
Dara Yen Elerath, Dark Braid, BkMk Press
Adam Falkner, The Willies, Button Poetry
Tony Gloeggler, What Kind of Man, NYQ Books
Carlos Andrés Gómez, Fracture, University of Wisconsin Press
Jessica Guzman, Adelante, Switchback Books
lukas ray hall, loudest when startled, YesYes Books
Jubi Arriola-Headley, Original Kink, Sibling Rivalry Press
Linda Hillringhouse, The Things I Didn't Know to Wish For, NYQ Books
Didi Jackson, Moon Jar, Red Hen Press
Julie Kane, Mothers of Ireland, LSU Press
Kirun Kapur, Women in the Waiting Room, Black Lawrence Press
Andrew McFayden-Ketchym, Visiting Hours, Stephen F. Austin State University Press
Karen Kevorkian, Quivira, 3 Three: A Taos Press
Dora Malech, Flourish, Carnegie Mellon University Press
Catherine Pierce, Danger Days, Saturnalia Books
Marc Rahe, Gravity Well, Rescue Press
Martha Serpas, Double Effect, LSU Press
Kari Gunter-Seymour, A Place so Deep Inside America it Can't be Seen, Sheila-Na-Gig Editions
Lauren Shapiro, Arena, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Heather Swan, A Kinship with Ash, Terrapin Books
Kelly Grace Thomas, Boat Burned, YesYes Books
Adeeba Shahid Talukder, Shahr-E-Jaanaan: The City of the Beloved, Tupelo Press
Amy Woolard, Neck of the Woods, Alice James Books
2019 Winner - Undoll(YesYes Books) Tanya Grae
In her remarkable and stunning first collection, Tanya Grae dares to name all the virgins and wolves that live inside the mirrored mirror. Her exploding metaphors bring us repeatedly to all the sensibilities of language that gather us into a clearing as still as the vastness of stillness.
Undoll is an undertow of body, mind, and spirit roots that peel all the whispered spaces and places raw and exposed. This debut of poetry un-hushes intimate justice and offers a new juxtaposition of mother, baby, daughter, girl, barbie, lover, wife, witch or bitch, and a goodface.
Final Judge Jaki Shelton Green
2019 Finalists
Diannely Antigua, Ugly Music, (YesYes Books)
Francesca Bell, Bright Stain (Red Hen Press)
Cassie Donish, The Year of the Femme (University of Iowa Press)
Tanya Grae, Undoll (YesYes Books)
Faylita Hicks, HoodWitch (Acre Books)
Jessica Jacobs, Take Me With You, Wherever You're Going (Four Way Books)
Keetje Kuipers, All Its Charms (BOA Editions, LTD)
Jill McDonough, Here All Night (Alice James Books)
Nomi Stone, Kill Class (Tupelo Press)
2019 Longlist Finalists
We apologize for the delay in announcing the 2019 Longlist Finalists, but the coronavirus has slowed everything. We have a longer list than usual because we think it important to support literary presses, especially now.
Shimon Adaf, Aviva-No (Alice James Books)
Diannely Antigua, Ugly Music, (YesYes Books)
Kristin George Bagdanov, Diurne (Tupelo Press)
Francesca Bell, Bright Stain (Red Hen Press)
Tina Mozelle Braziel, Known by Salt (Anhinga Press)
Catherine Carter, Larvae of the Nearest Stars (LSU Press)
Andres Cerpa, Bicycle in a Ransacked City: An Elegy (Alice James Books)
Mark Conway, Rivers of the Driftless Region (Four Ways Books)
Barbara Crooker, Some Glad Morning (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Cassie Donish, The Year of the Femme (University of Iowa Press)
Laura Foley, Why I Never Finished My Dissertation, (Headmistress Press)
Richard Foerster, Boy on a Doorstop (Tiger Bark Press)
Rebecca Foust, The Unexploded Ordnance Bin (Swan Scythe Press)
Tanya Grae, Undoll (YesYes Books)
Matt Hart, Everything Breaking for Good (YesYes Books)
Faylita Hicks, HoodWitch (Acre Books)
Jessica Jacobs, Take Me With You, Wherever You're Going (Four Way Books)
Elizabeth Jacobson, Not into the Blossoms and Not into the Air (Parlor Press)
Kathryn Kirkpatrick, The Fisher Queen (Salmon Poetry)
Elizabeth Knapp, Requiem with an Amulet in its Beak (Washington Writers Publishing House)
Keetje Kuipers, All Its Charms (BOA Editions, LTD)
Jill McDonough, Here All Night (Alice James Books)
Philip Memmer, Pantheon (Lost Horse Press)
Linda Parsons, Candescent (Iris Books)
Michelle Peñaloza, Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire (Inlandia Institute Books)
Ricky Ray, Fealty (Diode Editions)
Dana Roeser, All Transparent Things Need Thundershirts (Two Sylvias Press)
Sam Ross, Company (Four Ways Books)
Tina Schumann, Praising the Paradox (Red Hen Press)
Nomi Stone, Kill Glass (Tupelo Press)
Alan Williamson, Franciscan Notes (Tupelo Press)
Annie Woodford, Bootleg (Groundhog Poetry Press)
2018 Julie Suk Award Winner
Kevin Prufer, How He Loved Them (Four Way Books)
Yes, I believe your confession of love for the world-
"I've got you inside me, I'm breathing your tinted air,"
But I don't believe the box of notes you admit carrying in your pocket can be described by you as a simple record of the times. In truth, the poems delineate a passion for the world in eloquent and profound ways, vividly understandable when conveyed to the reader.
How we admire them!Julie Suk
2018 Julie Suk Award Finalists
Shaindel Beers, Secure Your Own Mask (White Pine Press)
Julia Bouwsma, Midden (Fordham University Press)
Sara Henning, View from True North (Southern Illinois University Press)
T.R. Hummer, After the Afterlife (Acre Books)
Fady Joudah, Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (Milkweed Editions)
Shara Lessley, The Explosive Expert's Wife (Univ of Wisconsin Press)
Ada Limon, The Carrying (Milkweed Editions)
Iain Haley Pollock, Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James Books)
Kevin Prufer, How He Loved Them (Four Way Books)
Honors for books published posthumously in 2018
Jose Manuel Cardona, Birnam Wood (translated by Hélène Cardona - Salmon Poetry)
Monica A. Hand, Divida (Alice James Books)
2018 Long List Finalists
Tina Barr, Green Target (Barrow Street Press)
Shaindel Beers, Secure your own Mask (White Pine Press)
Nickole Brown, To Those Who Were Our First Gods (Rattle)
Adrian Blevins, Appalachains Run Amok (two sylvias press)
Sally Blumis-Dunn, Echolocation (MadHat Press)
Julia Bouwsma, Midden (Fordham University Press)
Jose Manuel Cardona, Birnam Wood (translated by Hélène Cardona - Salmon Poetry)
Mario Chard, Land of Fire (Tupelo Press)
Wendy Chen, Unearthings (Tavern Books)
Aaron Coleman, Threat Come Close (Four Way Books)
Jim Daniels, The Middle Ages (Red Mountain Press)
Charlene Fix, Taking a Walk in my Animal Hat (Bottom Dog Press)
Paul Guest, Because Everything is Terrible (Diode Editions)
Monica A. Hand, Divida (Alice James Books)
Jared Harel, Go Because I Love You (Diode Editions)
Sara Henning, View from True North (Southern Illinois University Press)
Tom C. Hunley, Here Lies (Stephen F. Austin State University Press)
T.R. Hummer, After the Afterlife (Acre Books)
Allison Joseph, Confessions of a Barefaced Woman (Red Hen Press)
Fady Joudah, Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance (Milkweed Editions)
Ada Limon, The Carrying (Milkweed Editions)
Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Isako/Isako (Alice James Books)
Lucian Mattison, Reapers Milonga (YesYes Books)
Carly Joy Miller, Ceremonial (Orison Books)
Shara Lessley, The Explosive Expert's Wife (Univ of Wisconsin Press)
Emily O'Neill, A Falling Knife Has no Handle (YesYes Books)
Iain Haley Pollock, Ghost, Like a Place (Alice James Books)
Kevin Prufer, How He Loved Them (Four Way Books)
Michael T. Young, The Infinite Doctrine of Water (Terrapin Books)
2017 Julie Suk Award Winner
Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books)
The broody hunk of a man on the cover of the book, "Calling a Wolf A Wolf," is a dark precursor of the raw strength of this collection of poems. Just say yes to life, Kaveh Akbar demands, and step into consequence. His desire is "to be letters, not their sounds, but their shapes on a page, to grow terrible as molten iron poured down a throat." The power of Akbar's words reflects his vision, a "turning on of lamps to double shadows," the revelations revealed from his personal struggle with addiction enhanced by an ever-present eloquence. He calls a wolf a wolf.
Julie Suk
2017 Julie Suk Award Finalists
Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books)
Ruth Awad, Set to Music a Wildfire (Southern Indiana Review Press)
Traci Brimhall, Saudade (Copper Canyon Press)
Annemarie NàChurreáin, Bloodroot (Doire Press)
Kerri French, Every Room in the Body (Moon City Press)
Adam Giannelli, Tremulous Hinge (University of Iowa Press)
Andrea Jurjevic, Small Crimes (Anhinga Press)
2017 Long List Finalists
Kaveh Akbar, Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books)
Ruth Awad, Set to Music a Wildfire (Southern Indiana Review Press)
Tara Betts, Break the Habit (Trio House Press)
Traci Brimhall, Saudade (Copper Canyon Press)
Christopher Buckley, Spanish Notebook (Shabda Press)
Jennifer Chang, Some Say the Lark (Alice James Books)
Micah Chatterton, Go to the Living (Inlandia Books)
Kelly Cherry, Quartet for J. Robert Oppenheimer (LSU Press)
Annemarie NàChurreáin, Bloodroot (Doire Press)
Jehanne Dubrow, Dots & Dashes (Southern Illinois University Press)
Patricia Fargnoli, Hallowed (Tupelo Press)
Kerri French, Every Room in the Body (Moon City Press)
Madelyn Garner, Hum of Our Blood (Three: A Taos Press)
Adam Giannelli, Tremulous Hinge (University of Iowa Press)
Janice Gould, The Force of Gratitude (Headmistress Press)
Lois P. Jones, Night Ladder (Glass Lyre Press)
Andrea Jurjevic, Small Crimes (Anhinga Press)
Lynn Melnick, Landscape with Sex and Violence (YesYes Books)
Cassie Pruyn, Lena (Texas Tech University Press)
Khadijah Queen, I'm So Fine (YesYes Books)
Jane Satterfield, Apocalypse Mix (Autumn House Press)
Michael Shewmaker, Penumbra (Ohio University Press)
Raena Shirali, Gilt (YesYes Books)
Gillian Wegener, The Sweet Haphazard (Sixteen Rivers Press)
2016 Julie Suk Award Winner
Monique Ferrell, Attaversiamo (NYQ Books)
The title of this book by Monique Ferrill, ATTRAVERSIAMO, is difficult to pronounce, yet I remain enthralled with the contents...the power of her voice... and return again and again, her words full of moxie, at the same time endearing, an arm-around-the-shoulder wisdom insisting love is the "magnitude of our undertaking. . .the knowing breath of life touching gently. . . a great echo that forms this life, calls to the next, and carries everything in between.
Can't get much better than that!
Julie Suk
2016 Julie Suk Award Finalists
Helene Cardona, Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry)
Monique Ferrell, Attaversiamo (NYQ Books)
Kim Garcia, The Brighter House (White Pine Press)
Rachel Richardson, Hundred-Year Wave (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
Katherine Soniat, Bright Stranger (LSU Press)
Lindsay Tigue, System of Ghosts (University of Iowa Press)
C. Dale Young, The Halo (Four Ways Books)
2016 Long List Finalists
Ellery Akers, Practicing the Truth (Autumn House)
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Posada Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications)
Daniel Borzutzky, The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press)
Helene Cardona, Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry)
Rob Cook, Last Window in the Punk Hotel (Rain Mountain Press)
James R. Dennis, Correspondence in D Minor (Stephen F. Austin State University Press)
Melissa Dickey, Dragons (Rescue Press)
Monique Ferrell, Attaversiamo (NYQ Books)
Kim Garcia, The Brighter House (White Pine Press)
Melody S Gee, The Dead in Daylight (Cooper Dillon Books)
Rochelle Hurt, In Which I Play the Runaway (Barrow Street Press)
Janine Joseph, Driving Without a License (Alice James Books)
Jen Karetnick, American Sentencing (Winter Goose Publishing)
Annie Kim, Into the Cyclorama (University of Southern Indiana Press)
James Davis May, Unquiet Things (LSU Press)
Lyn Pederson, The Nomenclature of Small Things (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
Catherine Pierce, The Tornado is the World (Saturnalia Books)
Rachel Richardson, Hundred-Year Wave (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
Jennifer Richter, No Acute Distress (Southern Illinois University Press)
Stephanie Rogers, Plucking the Strings (Saturnalia Books)
Michael Schmeltzer, Blood Song (Two Sylvia's Press)
Katherine Soniat, Bright Stranger (LSU Press)
Lindsay Tigue, System of Ghosts (University of Iowa Press)
Arisa White, You're the Most Beautiful Thing that Happened (Augury Books)
C. Dale Young, The Halo (Four Ways Books)
2015 Julie Suk Award Winner
We have two winners for the 2015 Julie Suk Award for best poetry book published by an independent press.
Noel Crook, Salt Moon (Southern Illinois University Press)
Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn (University of Pittsburgh Press)
There are times language springs out of poems so strong and perfectly attuned to subject it knocks us to our knees. So it goes with Noel Crook's astonishing first book, Salt Moon. Deep tenderness and love compete with the "crush of small bones" in "a world that could take you in an instant." Buzzards wheel, crows on the lawn "bark a raucous code," and a "fisted black widow" appears in the sandbox.
Relishing these images, the reader is compelled to return again and again to her work.
Julie Suk
And there, equally sinuous and authentic, are the poems in Boy With Thorn by Rickey Laurentiis. His is a brutal world, yet the rich, emotive language is ever in control. Who else has written so eloquently of a lynching as he does in the chilling poem, "Of Leaves That Have Fallen"?
There is a wild elegance ever present in these wanton yet deeply intimate poems. One does not question the awards he has received.Julie Suk
2015 Julie Suk Award Finalists
Abdul Ali, Trouble Sleeping (New Issues Press)
Tara Bray, Small Mothers of Fright (LSU Press)
Nickole Brown, Fanny Says (Boa Editions Ltd)
Noel Crook, Salt Moon (Southern Illinois University Press)
Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn (University of Pittsburgh Press)
2015 Long List Finalists
Abdul Ali, Trouble Sleeping (New Issues Press)
Tara Bray, Small Mothers of Fright (LSU Press)
Nickole Brown, Fanny Says (Boa Editions Ltd)
Laura Bylenok, Warp (Truman State University Press)
Noel Crook, Salt Moon (Southern Illinois University Press)
Gregory Donovan, Torn from the Sun (Red Hen Press)
Veronica Golos, Rootwork (Three: A Taos Press)
John Hoppenthaler, Domestic Garden (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
Jessica Jacobs, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press)
Kirun Kapur, Visiting Indira Gandhi's Palmist (Elixir Press)
Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Angie Macri, Underwater Panther (Southeast Missouri State University Press)
Nate Marshalll, Wild Hundreds (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Kathleen McGookey, Stay (Press 53)
Catriona O'Reilly, Geis (Wake Forest University Press)
Marci Vogel, At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody (Howling Bird Press)
2014 Julie Suk Award Winner
David Roderick, The Americans (University of Pittsburgh Press)
I'm so pleased about my choice of winner-David Roderick. The strange thing is, his book was the first I picked up to read.
"In every city I've gotta hear lions roar" and his voice is one impressive roar.
I love these lines, "I've always envied how you chance upon/a scene and make a tiny biography of its things."
And, ". . .every body contains its atlas of salt." I could go on and on. I am so proud to have him head the pride. This is one book that shall never leave my hands. He is over and above more original than some well-touted poets. How have I missed him?
Julie Suk
2014 Julie Suk Award Finalists
Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum (White Pine Press)
Zeina Hashem Beck, To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press)
Chloe Honum, The Tulip-Flame (Cleveland State University Press)
Garth Martens, Prologue for the Age of Consequence (Anansi)
Susan Rich, Cloud Pharmacy (White Pine Press)
2014 Long List Finalists
Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum (White Pine Press)
Zeina Hashem Beck, To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press)
Denise Bergman, The Telling (Cervana Barva Press)
Meg Day, Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street Press)
Renee Emerson, keeping me still (Winter Goose Publishing)
John M. Fitzgerald, Favorite Bedtime Stories (Salmon Poetry)
Lauren Haldeman, Calenday (Rescue Press)
Chloe Honum, The Tulip-Flame (Cleveland State University Poetry Center)
Lissa Kiernan, Two Faint Lines in the Violet (Negative Capability Press)
Garth Martens, Prologue for the Age of Consequence (Anansi)
Heather Ross Miller, Celestial Navigator (Louisiana Literature Press)
Joseph Mills, This Miraculous Turning (Press 53)
Susan Rich, Cloud Pharmacy (White Pine Press)
David Roderick, The Americans (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Anya Silver, I Watched You Disappear (Louisiana State University Press)
Diana Whitney, Wanting It (Harbor Mountain Press)
2013 Julie Suk Award Winner
Susan Elbe, The Map of What Happened (Backwaters Press)
"Ultimately I turn to Susan Elbe. Her book, The Map of What Happened, my final choice for winner. Why? The elasticity and freshness of her language in this sensual, resonant love letter to her city, Chicago.
"I came into a house of things that needed fixing " she writes, ". . . . . I came into a house of things that couldn't be fixed. A whiskey-warm kitchen corner,/cancer growing in the alcove bedroom,/ the fridge's lonely hum./The ungraceful way we understood."
The Map of What Happened is one we all traverse. Would that we could with such resilience and wisdom.
". . .all night by seed-light/you search in dream, knowing nothing/tells you how far from here to there,/from one love to the next: Drifter,/your heavy pollen-dusted wings/the sweet cello of your body-too freighted to go deep enough."
In her fraught landscape there is a hidden room where she accepts "the heart is neither fragile/nor indifferent, but street fighter to its core," like boys in the neighborhood, "street-smart and tender all at once. They were not for me./Still, when they cupped their hands around a match against the wind, bending to its tribal fire,/ those soft fans of eyelashes against their cheeks,/ Lord,/Lord I believed they were."
Revitalizing the past, she reminds us,". . . the hinged heart,/trap door to every treasure,/only opens with the word."
How could I have chosen otherwise. I am so happy with these competition poems-all that you sent. Onward and upward.
Julie Suk
2013 Julie Suk Award Finalists
Meena Alexander, Birthplace With Buried Stones (Triquarterly Books)
Mark Jay Brewin Jr, Scrap Iron (University of Utah Press)
Helene Cardona, Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry)
Kelly Davio, Burn This House (Red Hen Press)
Susan Elbe, The Map of What Happened (The Backwaters Press)
Patricia Fargnoli, Winter (Hobblebush Books)
Tina Kelley, Precise (Word Press)
Tony Medina, Broke Baroque (2leaf Press)
Stacy R. Nigliazzo, Scissored Moon (Press 53)
Jane Satterfield, Her Familiars (Elixir Press)
Natalie Shapero, No Object (Saturnalia Books)
Rachel Jamison Webster, September (Triquarterly Books)