Congratulations to all of the winners of 2005 Tupelo Press Awards and Contests!
2005 Dorset Prize
Winner: Davis McCombs for Dismal Rock
We are delighted to announce the results of the 2005 Dorset Prize, judged by Linda Gregerson. Following are the winner, runners up, and honorable mentions. All finalists will be listed on the Tupelo Press website.
The Dorset Prize to: Dismal Rock, by Davis McCombs
Davis McCombs will receive a $10,000 prize, and his book will be released in Fall 2007.
Davis McCombs’ first book, Ultima Thule, was chosen by W.S. Merwin as winner of the 1999 Yale Series of Younger Poets, called “the finest Yale Poets selection in years” by Publishers Weekly, and one of five finalists for a National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry.
This beautiful book records the sacraments of labor and the dark equivocations of history in a single swath of tobacco land in south central Kentucky. With infinite patience and luminous particularity, Davis McCombs unearths the traces of those-who-have-gone-before-us through the material world. His poems have the weight of psalms.
—Linda Gregerson
First Runner up: Sweet Darkness, by Greg Rappleye
Oh the fine, brawling, pungent observation of these poems: “the smog-brown sea,” “the baggies-drooping sea”; Homer would be exhilarated and appalled. Greg Rappleye revives the language and revives our powers of seeing. Sweet Darkness is shot through with light.
—Linda Gregerson
Additional Runners up:
Shaggy Parasol, by Susan Gubernat
The Book of Sleep, by Eleanor Stanford
The Little Hour, by Kathleen Jesme
Red Door, by Donald Platt
Honorable Mention:
Biogeography, by Sandra Meek
Emphatic Numeral, by Molly Tenenbaum
The Transits of Saturn, by Leslie Ullman
The Lost Tin Myth, Lytton Smith
Congratulations to Davis McCombs and to all of this year’s finalists for giving Tupelo Press such exquisite work. Thanks to Linda Gregerson and to each and every poet who graced Tupelo Press with a Dorset Prize manuscript. We are, as ever, endlessly grateful for your support.
Jeffrey Levine
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Tupelo Press
Snowbound Series Chapbook Award
Winner: Joy Katz for The Garden Room
The 2005 Snowbound Series Chapbook Award, selected by judge Lisa Russ Spaar, has been awarded to Joy Katz of Brooklyn, New York for her manuscript The Garden Room.
Runners up: Karen Donovan for Parts List Counted in Ogham and Hildred Crill for Mast of the Ship, Beam of the Loom.
2005 Snowbound Chapbook Competition Finalists:
Sally Ball, Scottsdale, AZ, Love’s Soft Surgery
Kurt Brown, New York, NY, Sincerest Flattery
Andrea Hollander Budy, Mountain View, AK, Living Room
Ruth E. Dickey, Seattle, WA, Paper Houses, Sky Ceilings
John De Stefano, New York, NY, Critical Opalescence and the Blueness of Sky
Kevin A. Gonzalez, Madison, WI, Cultural Studies
Michael Gushue, Washington, DC, Fulgurites
Cynthia Hogue, Phoenix, AZ, Optimism
Diane Holland, Portland, OR, The Hand Stayed From Its Desire
Kathleen Jesme, Inner Grove Heights, MN, Ordinary Work
Ruth Moon Kempher, St. Augustine, FL, A Book of Designs and Hours
Jesse Lee Kercheval, Madison, WI, Chartreuse
Rusty Morrison, Richmond, CA, Generosity is hidden in fact
Veronica Patterson, Loveland, CO, Maneuvers
Linda Tomol Pennisi, Syracuse, NY, Suddenly, Fruit
John Pursley III, Tuscaloosa, AL, Elegy with Stillness in Mind
Mary Ann Samyn, Morgantown, WV, Draw something shiny
Jorge Sanchez, Chicago, IL, Now Sing
Heather Sellers, Holland, MI, Women and Boys
Sofia M. Starnes, Williamsburg, VA Provinces
Stephanie Strickland, Evanston, IL Ecstasy
Gabriel Welsch, State College, PA, the telemarketer’s dream
Sixth Annual Poetry Contest
Winners: Dwaine Rieves for his manuscript When the Eye Forms and Melanie Almeder for her manuscript On Dream Street.
The 2005 Sixth Annual Poetry Contest Judge’s Prize, selected by judge Carolyn Forche, has been awarded to Dwaine Rieves of Washington, District of Columbia for his manuscript When the Eye Forms.
The 2005 Sixth Annual Poetry Contest Editors’ Prize has been awarded to Melanie Almeder of Salem, Virginia for her manuscript On Dream Street.
2005 Sixth Annual Poetry Contest Finalists:
Margo Berdeshevsky, Paris, France, But A Passage in Wilderness
Kristin Bock, Amherst, MA, Cloisters
Susan Briante, Austin, TX, Pioneers in the Study of Motion
Scott Coffel, Iowa City, IA, Mild Worlds Elsewhere
Nadia Herman Colburn, Cambridge, MA, The High Shelf
Hildred Crill, Sweden, The Book of Lichens
D. Dennigan, W. Hollywood, CA, My Bed is Green
Phebus Etienne, Montclair, NJ, Chainstitching
Melanie Figg, St. Paul, MN, Lucky Bird
Julie Gamberg, Oakland, CA, The Museum of Natural History
Sunshine Glenstone, Sewickley, PA, Porch of Judgment
Matthew Guenette, Bloomington, IL, Sudden Anthem
Anna Maria Hong, Seattle, WA, Fablesque
Dale M. Kushner, Madison, WI, Via Magdalene
Matthew Lippman, Brooklyn, NY, The New Year of Yellow
Jennifer Militello, Newport, NH, From Moth to Sorrow
Jean-Paul Pecqueur, Brooklyn, NY, The Case Against Happiness
David Roderick, San Francisco, CA, Blue Colonial
Jorge Sanchez, Chicago, IL, Non-Cartoon World
Angela Shaw, Swarthmore, PA, The Beginning of the Fields
Pamela Sutton, Philadelphia, PA, Bone House Broken
Don Thompson, Buttonwillow, CA, Where We Live