Catamaran Poetry Prize 2018
The winner of the 2018 Catamaran Poetry Prize is
Broken Kingdom by Michelle Bitting
Michelle Bitting
Michelle Bitting’s latest collection is The Couple Who Fell to Earth (C & R Press, 2016), named one of the Kirkus Best Books of 2016. She has poems published in the American Poetry Review, Narrative, Prairie Schooner, the New York Times, the Harvard Review, and others. Poems of hers have appeared on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily and in numerous anthologies, including Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond and Myrrh, Mothwing, Smoke: Erotic Poems from Tupelo Press. Her book Good Friday Kiss, chosen by Thomas Lux, won the DeNovo First Book Award; and Notes to the Beloved won the Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award, earned a starred review from Kirkus, and was reissued by C & R Press in 2018. She has won awards from GlimmerTrain and the Beyond Baroque Foundation. Poems of hers have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. Bitting also won the 2018 Mark Fischer Poetry Prize. She has taught poetry in the UCLA Extension Writers Program, at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and for ten years has been an active California Poet in the Schools. She earned an MFA in poetry from Pacific University, Oregon, an MA in mythological studies with an emphasis in depth psychology, and in summer 2018 will complete a PhD in mythological studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is the poet laureate of Pacific Palisades and has won grants from the Optimists Club and Poets & Writers Magazine for her teaching work in Los Angeles. www.michellebitting.com
“Michelle Bitting is an original, no one writes quite like she does with her lush, ruminative excursions into the female psyche, into myth and the bliss and fragility of domesticity, blithe forays into sex, gender, politics, religion and what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother, a teacher and a poet striding into the kingdom, breaking every window, blowing open every door.” ~Dorianne Laux
“There is a sense in Michelle Bitting’s Broken Kingdom that the poet is announcing the advent of something both gorgeous and horrific. It’s very much a book for our time. Repeatedly, these poems astound me with the power of their pronouncements and with their new and voltaic use of language. Broken Kingdom restores my faith that life can be miraculous, even when—or especially when—it’s as mundane as a father and son unstopping a clogged bathroom sink.” ~Zack Rogow
The Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets
The Catamaran Poetry Prize encourages the submission of previously unpublished poetry manuscripts across a range of styles, themes, and forms. This contest is for a collection of poetry only. The prize is only open to West Coast poets living in California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii. A prize of $1,000 and publication in book form is awarded to the poetry collection selected by the judge. Submissions accepted Nov 15th through April 20th.
Finalists
What Kind Of Woman
by Farnaz Fatemi
from Santa Cruz, California
Career Suicide
by Charles Jensen
from Los Angeles, California
Drive The Self Until Land's End
by Gabrielle Myers
from Sacramento, California
Transit of Mercury
by Helen Wickes
from Oakland, California
About Zack Rogow:
The judge for our 2018 Catamaran poetry prize is Zack Rogow. Zack Rogow is a poet, playwright, editor, and translator. Zack has published eight collections of poetry, and is the author, editor, or translator of twenty books or plays.