Yesterday at the Portland (Maine) Poetry Festival, we announced the five finalists of the Charles Simic Poetry Prize, as selected by David Rivard. And here they are:
Mark Decartaret - The Year I Went Without Having Any Sense of Direction; The Year I went Without Reading (All About It); The Year I Went Without Updating My Resume
Oz Hardwick - The Reassuring Otherness of Ritual Roleplay; Flock; My New Favourite Museum
Jefferson Navicky - Other Fathers; King Catfish; House of Silver
George Perrault - the new doctor; purple apple newspaper; conversely
Betsy Sholl - Like a Wounded Dog; The Starling; The Mercy
We will announce the winner of the $1,000 prize in our November issue. We will also be announcing the winner of the Editor's Choice Award, a signed first edition of Simic's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The World Doesn't End.
Charlie wrote: “I was already dozing off in the shade, dreaming that the rustling trees were my many selves explaining themselves all at the same time so that I could not make out a single word. My life was a beautiful mystery on the verge of understanding, always on the verge! Think of it!” - from The World Doesn't End
Thank you to all poets who sent us their work for shedding some light on this beautiful mystery.