The 2013 NC State Poetry Contest
Our Guest Judge Michael Wiegers, executive editor of Copper Canyon Press, has spoken, and the winners of this year's statewide contest are below.
I hope you will join us for the presentation of prizes, some comments from Michael Wiegers, and a reading from Copper Canyon's newest poet, Natalie Diaz. This will take place Wednesday, April 3rd, at 7:30 p.m. in the Caldwell Hall Lounge (on Hillsborough Street on the NC State campus).
Wiegers has edited award-winning collections by poets such as C.D. Wright, W.S. Merwin, Ruth Stone, Ted Kooser, and Michael Dickman. He additionally serves as Poetry Editor for Narrative Magazine. Natalie Diaz is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2012.
The 2013 Contest with Guest Judge MICHAEL WIEGERS
Winner of the 2013 Poetry Prize:
Spencer Goyette, "Church, Bird and Tree" (Raleigh, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Alice Owens Johnson, “Clothesline” (Black Mountain, NC)
Karina McCorkle, “Tоска” (Chapel Hill, NC)
Kari Smith, “Learning Curve” (Raleigh, NC)
Shannon Ward, “Dressing the Pig” (Fayetteville, NC)
Finalists
Aaron Balance, “Round Peak” (Greensboro, NC)
Judith Behar, “Aging” (Greensboro, NC)
Melissa Cumber, “Number Eleven” (Garner, NC)
Katherine Darden, “Spence” (Morrisville, NC)
Rochelle Germond, “Missing” (Raleigh, NC)
Alice Owens Johnson, “Clothesline” (Black Mountain, NC)
Karina McCorkle, “Tоска” (Chapel Hill, NC)
Jessica Quah, “(No Stone) Unturned” (Greensboro, NC)
A Kat Reece, “Ulcers” (Raleigh, NC)
LeighAnna Schesser, “The Trouble” (Raleigh, NC)
Rob Shapiro, “Almost There” (Elon, NC)
Kari Smith, “Learning Curve” (Raleigh, NC)
Jordan Taylor, “Abandoned Farmhouse” (Wendell, NC)
Shannon Ward, “Dressing the Pig” (Fayetteville, NC)
Matt Wimberley, “Homebound” (Beech Mountain, NC)
Winner of the 2013 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Jordan Taylor, "Abandoned Farmhouse" (senior, English)
The American Academy of Poets Prize (for graduate students)
Richard Nace, "Walking on Glass" (Raleigh, NC)
Here are some of the previous years' contest results:
The 2012 Contest with Guest Judge BARBARA RAS
Winner of the 2012 Poetry Prize:
Tasha Pippin, “At the Funeral” (Rocky Mount, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Claudia McQuistion, “After A Death” (Greensboro, NC)
Lance Morrison, “To Richard Siken” (Raleigh, NC)
Kari Smith, “Pink” (Raleigh, NC)
Matt Wimberley, “Black Mountain Poem” (Beech Mountain, NC)
Finalists
Elly Bookman, “In-Flight Poem” (Greensboro, NC)
Megan Bostic, “If It’s A Boy” (Raleigh, NC)
Evan Brisson, “My Father’s Hebrew Lesson” (Raleigh, NC)
Gavin Cobb, “The Vacation Homes” (Winston-Salem, NC)
Sierra Golden, “Bear” (Raleigh, NC)
Elizabeth Jackson, “Dressing the Wound” (Raleigh, NC)
Jonathan McClure, “Hospital, Night” (Greensboro, NC)
Jessica Marie Plante, “Horses” (Greensboro, NC)
Rob Shapiro, “The Map” (Elon, NC)
Jennifer Whitaker, “The Lesson” (Greensboro, NC)
Winner of the 2012 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Evan Brisson, “My Father’s Hebrew Lesson” (senior, English)
The American Academy of Poets Prize (for graduate students)
And here are some previous year's contestants:
The 2011 Contests with Guest Judge THOMAS LUX
Winner of the 2011 Poetry Prize:
Brian Ownbey, "Where Touching Leads Us" (Raleigh, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Sierra Golden, "Visiting Tenakke Springs, AK" (Raleigh, NC)
Robert Greene, "Band of Aides " (Raleigh, NC)
Claudine Moreau, "Upon Seeing An Ex-Boyfriend in an
After-Sex Scene on a Daytime Soap" (Burlington, NC)
Katie Prince, "A Letter to My Unborn Child" (Raleigh, NC)
Finalists
Don Ball, "Driving Lessons" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Leethaniel Brumfield, "He-She" (Raleigh, NC)
Maria Isabelle Carlos, "Sign Language" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Danielle Carr, "[Poem about Crawling into a Lightbulb]" (Raleigh, NC)
Ansel Elkins, "Goat Man" (Greensboro, NC)
Claudia McQuistion, "Circe Approaches Old Age" (Greensboro, NC)
Timothy Reavis, "Jurassic Parking Lot" (Raleigh, NC)
Kari Smith, "Different At Night" (Raleigh, NC)
Corrie Lynn White, "Friday" (Raleigh, NC)
Jake Young, "Look, Don't Touch" (Raleigh, NC)
Winner of the 2011 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Kat Reece, "Wallet-Size Photo of the Child I Gave Up" (junior, Religious Studies)
The American Academy of Poets Prize (for graduate students)
to be announced
The 2010 Contests with Guest Judge SARAH LINDSAY
Winner of the 2010 Prize:
Tara Taylor, "The Magician's Assistant," (Raleigh, NC)
Honorable Mentions:
Keun-Hae Lee, "Need," (Raleigh, NC)
Judith Behar, "Another Spring," (Greensboro, NC)
The American Academy of Poets Prize (for NC State graduate students):
Megan Roberts, "Snowbabies".
Honorable Mentions:
Emily Howson, "Camping".
Alexandra Distler, "The reasons (or discussing the family trait of deep depression with my brother)".
The 2009 Contest with Guest Judge ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT
(Tie) Winners of the 2009 Brenda Smart Poetry Prize:
Rachel Richardson, "One Summer" (Greensboro, NC)
Rebecca Warren, "In the Neighborhood of Fire" (Greensboro, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Hannah Bonner, "What We Hope For" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Sarah Cox, "An Invocation, Revised" (Greensboro, NC)
Megan Roberts, "My Father's Side" (Raleigh, NC)
Finalists
Sarah Archer, "Life-long iron lung user dies during power failure" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Donald Ball, "All This" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Michael Colonnese, "Dead Spike Buck on the Blue Ridge Parkway" (Fayetteville, NC)
Alexandra Distler, "Debt" (Raleigh, NC)
Robert Greene, "forget Freud, read Mina Loy" (Raleigh, NC)
Elizabeth Jackson, "Hanging On" (Raleigh, NC)
Jeff Miles, "The Quiet Country" (Greensboro, NC)
Robert McCall, "Bodies Out of Motion" (Saluda, NC)
Matt Poindexter, "Learning to Whistle" (Carrboro, NC)
Mark Spring, "His First Time" (Raleigh, NC)
Shannon Ward, "The Butcher" (Raleigh, NC)
Winner of the 2009 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Robert Greene, "forget Freud, read Mina Loy" (senior, English)
The American Academy of Poets Prize (for graduate students)
Celeste Doaks, "Video Girls vs. B-Girls" (Raleigh, NC)
The 2008 Contest with Guest Judge PETER MAKUCK
Winner of the 2008 Brenda Smart Poetry Prize:
C.G. Thompson, "Post Card to Ravinna " (Greenville, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Don Ball, "After the Dead " (Chapel Hill, NC)
William Blackley , "For God's Sake " (Elkin, NC)
Juliana Daugherty, "Ephphatha" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Brian Ownbey, "Sanctuary" (Raleigh, NC)
Finalists
Jane Andrews, "The Cowboy Way" (Raleigh, NC)
Mark Jay Brewin, "Todo Que Saben Es Trabajo" (Elon, NC)
Sarah Bull, "The Library Janitor" (Durham, NC)
Jessie Carty, "Best Friends " (Charlotte, NC)
Sarah Cox, "The Cartography of Winter " (Burlington, NC)
Eloise Gilster, "Market Watch" (Raleigh, NC)
Sean Honea, "Melatonin Blues " (Chapel Hill, NC)
Elizabeth Jackson, "Memorial Hospital, Chapel HIll, NC"
(Raleigh, NC)
Ariel Rudolph, "Writing in Dust" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Sarah Servie, "City Lights " (Raleigh, NC)
Jennifer Smyre, "Coffee Shop" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Robert Wells, "Separation" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Winner of the 2008 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Jeannine Erasmus, "This Thing Called Love" (sophomore, English)
The American Academy of Poets Prize (for graduate students)
Noel Crook, "Job" (Raleigh, NC)
The 2007 Contest with Guest Judge DORIANNE LAUX
Winner of the 2007 Brenda Smart Poetry Prize:
Noel Crook, "The Slaves" (Raleigh, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Michael Gaspeny, "Shore Drive" (Greensboro, NC)
Randy Ogle, "Millbrook, NY" (Morrisville, NC)
Pamela St. Clair, "Bird Song" (Wilmington, NC)
Mark Sells, "Fear Poem" (Salisbury, NC)
Finalists
Don Ball, "Easter Egg" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Michael Colonnese, "The Classic Vault" (Fayetteville, NC)
Melody Garren, "Vanity of a Third-Grader" (Rutherfordton, NC)
Valentina Gnup, "At Edward Hopper's Self-Portrait" (Greensboro, NC)
Lauren Gould, "Via Larga, 39" (Raleigh, NC)
Sarah Hamm, "Little Girl Hiding Poem" (Salisbury, NC)
Michael Mayo, "The best part about digging holes for a living is you can't take
your work home with you" (Raleigh, NC)
Emily Meineke, "Outside the Baptist Church" (Chapel HIll, NC)
Calvin Nordt, "Physics" (Apex, NC)
Hannah Louise Poston, "That Roman Holiday" (Carrboro, NC)
Allison Seay, "The Absence" (Greensboro, NC)
Anthony Snider, "A Quiet Afternoon" (Wilmington, NC)
Travis Smith, "Comfort, 4th of July" (Chapel HIll, NC)
Winner of the 2007 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Lauren Upton, "Water, Water Everywhere" (Raleigh, NC)
American Academy of Poetry Prize (for graduate students):
Kelly Michels, "Static in the Dark" (Raleigh, NC)
The 2006 contest with Guest Judge
KATHRYN STRIPLING BYER
Winner of the 2006 Brenda Smart Poetry Prize:
Heather Marcinowski, "The Charming" (Durham, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Amy Knox Brown, "Old Wives Tales" (Winston-Salem, NC)
Sam Cross, "Cabin Fever" (Raleigh, NC)
Ed Devany, "Don't Go Outside the Fence" (Chapel HIll, NC)
Joy Beshears Hagy, "Rapture" (Lexington, NC)
Jaime Laughter, "Gray's Lily" (Fuquay Varina, NC)
Finalists
Don Ball, "Alachua County 1988" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Ryland Bowman, "What I'll Need When I Go" (Greensboro, NC)
Cesar Castro, "Fifth Grade Torture Manual" (Carrboro, NC)
Jack Christian, "Boy On A String" (Raleigh, NC)
Sara Claytor, "Gangsters, Blondes, & P.I.'s" (Elk Park, NC)
Hilary Collins, "Swannanoa, N.C." (Swannanoa, NC)
Mary Hennessy, "In An Escher Print" (Raleigh, NC)
Mandy Monath, "Geese" (Salisbury, NC)
Brian Ownbey, "Indiana" (Raleigh, NC)
Daniel Parsons, "Rook-worm" (Raleigh, NC)
Ariel Rudolph, "Don't Look" (Boone, NC)
Elizabeth Stagg, "The Certainty of Husbands" (Durham, NC)
Cedric Tillman, "Branding" (Charlotte, NC)
Dianne Timblin, "From the Kitchen of Georgia M., July '31" (Durham, NC)
Lauren Upton "Equus Callabus" (Raleigh, NC)
Joan Weiner "A Hard Man to Love" (Asheville, NC)
Marian Westbrook "Interlude" (Goldsboro, NC)
The Brenda L. Smart Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Michael Mayo, "Blowing Off Death" (Raleigh, NC)
The 2005 Contest with Guest Judge PETER MAKUCK
Winner of the 2005 Brenda Smart Poetry Prize
Irene Harvley-Felder, "In Celebration of Death" (Burlington, NC)
Honorable Mentions
Michael Colonnese, "Scabs" (Fayetteville, NC)
Timur Hammond, "How to Harvest the Last of the Basil" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Nora Shepard, "Out of the Ordinary" (Raleigh, NC)
Anna Franklin Smith, "Widow" (Raleigh, NC)
Finalists
Jeremy Aufrance, "A Sketch of Life Without You" (Greensboro, NC)
Evan Benz, "how else can a mirror blush?" (Raleigh, NC)
A.J. Collins, "Generation" (Falkland, NC)
Madge Duffey, "Leaving" (Raleigh, NC)
Rebecca Germain, "Talin" (Morrisville, NC)
Eloise Gilster, "Fruit" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Alex Grant, "How the Cuckoo Sings" (Chapel Hill, NC)
Kristen Gravitte, "Lazarus" (Raleigh, NC)
Mark Hennessy, "Maximum Possible Error" (Raleigh, NC)
Charles Jester, "Open Air" (Durham, NC)
J.D. McGee, "Observations at Merritt Island" (Raleigh, NC)
Jessica Polka, "Autohagiography of Lidwina of Schiedam (died 1433)"
(Chapel Hill, NC)
Rebecca Robbins, "Swimming Pool, 1964" (Raleigh, NC)
Jessica Sampley, "Tuscaloosa to Tupelo" (Raleigh, NC)
Marian Westbrook, "Preservation" (Goldsboro, NC)
Winner of the 2005 Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Millie Breedlove, "Eve" (senior, English)
The 2004 Contest with Guest Judge DAVID BOTTOMS
The 2003 Contest with Guest Judge ELEANOR WILNER
