Laura Budofsky Wisniewski’s Sanctuary, Vermont, is the winner of the 2020 Orison Poetry Prize.
About Sanctuary, Vermont
Here, past, present, and future residents of Sanctuary, a richly imagined Vermont town, are given voice. Laura Budofsky Wisniewski joins the lineage of Edgar Lee Masters, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Louise Glück in inhabiting and valorizing the extraordinary inner lives of everyday people. Sanctuary’s townspeople endure hardships and loneliness, suffer injustice and racism, but still find moments of solace, beauty, and communion.
What a fantastic reading! Kudos to all who read and thanks to our emcees who graciously hosted the event! We are also grateful to Wendy Drexler and Jennifer Markell for helping to plan and organize this major event.
The recording of this event is now on our YouTube channel–check it out!
The links to the poets’ websites and purchasing information for their books are below.
FIRST HOUR READERS
1. Denise Provost has published in such journals as the Bagel Bards anthologies, Ibbetson Street, Muddy River Poetry Review, qarrtsiluni, Quadrille, Poetry Porch’s Sonnet Scroll, Sanctuary, and Light Quarterly. She received the New England Poetry Club’s Samuel Washington Allen award in 2021, and the Best Love Sonnet award from the Maria C. Faust Sonnet Competition in 2012. Her chapbook Curious Peach was published by Ibbetson Street Press in 2019, and her collection City of Stories is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press.
2. Lillo Way’s poetry collection, Lend Me Your Wings, was released July 2021 by Shanti Arts Publishing. Her chapbook, “Dubious Moon,” won the Hudson Valley Writers Center’s Slapering Hol Chapbook Contest. Her poems have won the E.E. Cummings Award and a Florida Review Editors’ Prize. Her writing has appeared in Poet Lore, New Letters, RHINO, Tampa Review, Louisville Review, Poetry East, and many anthologies. www.lilloway.com
3. Dianne M. Tarpy is the author of two books, the first, From the Heart, and her recently released, second in the series, entitled A New Day – words of inspiration and hope to soothe the soul. To purchase her books, please visit her website at Diannemtarpyauthor.com
4. Originally from Detroit, Nicole M. Young is a performance poet, playwright, and educator. She serves as producer and host of the web series, Black Writers Read. Nicole’s self-produced spoken word album, In/Put: Live from the Valley, was released in 2019. She has performed her poetry in over 25 venues across the country.
How to Purchase a Copy of In/Put: Live from the Valley
5.Dianalee Velie is the Poet Laureate of Newbury, NH. She is the author of six books of poetry. Italian Lesson, her latest collection, can be purchased from the publisher, thepoetrybox.com, amazon, or ordered from your favorite bookstore. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, the New England Poetry Club, the International Woman Writers Guild, the New Hampshire Poetry Society, and founder of the John Hay Poetry Society.
SECOND HOUR READERS
1. Christine Tierney has an MFA, a BA, a brand spanking new deodorant without aluminum, and a new collection of poetry titled, chicken+lowercase=fleur. Her poetry and flash fiction has been nominated for awards, and published in fab places. To purchase her book, go to christinetierneypoet.com
2. Scudder Parker grew up on a family farm in North Danville, VT. His first volume of poetry Safe as Lightning was released in June, 2020, by Rootstock Publishing, and was awarded the Best Poetry Book of 2020 by the Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE). It was also featured in Kirkus Review “Best Books of 2020.” He’s been a Protestant minister, Vermont State Senator, and energy policy expert. www.scudderparker.net
3. Paul Nemser’s new book, A Thousand Curves (2021), won the Editor’s Choice Award from Red Mountain Press. Taurus (2013) won the New American Poetry Prize. Tales of the Tetragrammaton (Mayapple Press 2014) is a chapbook of prose poetry. Nemser’s poems appear widely in magazines. He lives with his wife Rebecca in Cambridge, MA, and Harborside, ME.
5. Alexis Ask is a student poet, artist, and dancer from the Boston area. She has big dreams for the future.
THIRD HOUR READERS
1. Magdalena Gómez is a 2021 Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets with funds from the Mellon Foundation. Ms. Gómez is also a national Keynote Speaker. You can reach her at www.latinapoet.com Her poetry collection “Shameless Woman” can be purchased through www.redsugarcanepress.com
2. Poet Michael Favala Goldman (b.1966) is also the translator of seventeen books of Danish literature, including The Copenhagen Trilogy. His poetry collections are: Who has time for this?, Slow Phoenix and Small Sovereign (forthcoming). He has been running bi-monthly poetry critique groups from Northampton, MA since 2018.
3. Lisa DeSiro is both a writer and a musician. Her poems have been published in several journals and anthologies, an online chapbook, and two printed collections. She is founder/host of the Solidarity Salon, a performance series featuring creative artists of many genres. Read more about her at thepoetpianist.com.
4. In April 2021, Apprentice House Press published Virginia Crawford’squestions for water. Previously Touch appeared from Finishing Line Press. A teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council, she earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. She lives and writes in Baltimore, Maryland.
5. Gloria Monaghan is a Professor of Humanities at Wentworth University. She has published five books of poetry: Flawed (Finishing Line Press),Torero (Nixes Mate), The Garden (Flutter Press), False Spring (Adelaide), and Hydrangea (Kelsay Books). Her poems have appeared in Alexandria Quarterly, 2River, Adelaide, Aurorean, Chiron, Nixes-Mate, Mom Egg Review, and Lily Poetry Review, among others. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her book False Spring was nominated for the Griffin Prize.
This year’s annual Golden Rose Award will be presented to Rhina P. Espaillat. Espaillat has published twelve full-length books, four chapbooks and a monograph on translation.
Espaillat is noted for her English translations of Saint John of the Cross, as well as her book of Spanish translations of Robert Frost, Algo hay que no es amigo de los muros/Something There Is that Doesn’t Love a Wall, and her bilingual collection of Richard Wilbur translations, Oscura fruta/Dark Berries.Her work, which comprises poetry, essays and short stories in both English and her native Spanish, and translations from and into both languages, appears in numerous journals, anthologies and websites. She has received many national and international awards.
A founding member of the Melopoeia trio, Espaillat performs with poet Alfred Nicol and guitarist John Tavano, as well as with the quintet known as The Diminished Prophets.
Congratulations to thepoets whose poems were selected and many thanks to the judges who so generously volunteered their time and attention as they made their selections!
Join us on September 26, 3pm, for a reading of the prize-winning poems!
