Catamaran Poetry Prize
for West Coast Poets 2023
The Winner of the 2023 Poetry Prize is
Chased by Lunacies and Wonders
by Brad Crenshaw
from Santa Cruz, California
Brad Crenshaw has published three books of poetry with Greenhouse Review Press: My Gargantuan Desire, and two volumes of his epic poem, Genealogies, and Memphis Shoals, 2022. His work has appeared in a wide range of journals including Catamaran, Shenandoah, Chicago Review, Massachusetts Review, and Faultline, and recent poems appear in Salt, Hawaii Pacific Review, Trampoline, Pacifica Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Phren-Z. His poems have been anthologized in Bear Flag Republic, The Hard Work of Hope, and California Fire and Water. He has also published multiple articles in literary criticism and theory, as well as articles in neuroscience. He received his MFA and PhD in English from the University of California, Irvine, and later obtained a second PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Massachusetts. For many years, he worked as a neuropsychologist at Baystate Medical Center, and at the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services. He lives in Santa Cruz, California, and can be found at https://bradcrenshaw.me/about/
Judge Dorianne Laux had this to say about Chased by Lunacies and Wonders:
"
"Golden style, the complex clauses of C.K. Williams, Wallace Stevens or Hart Crane, this poetry wanders through language and image unfolding a new world. And character voices, Lucifer, at his stand up bass, saying "As we know, the world is fucking magical." Or the Magi, where rolling down a California desert highway "an oasis/here and here", somewhere near Bakersfield where "the miracles are raw". The Bible, Yeats, Keats, allusions to the forebear poets abound. This is one talented poet.""—Dorianne Laux
About 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The Catamaran Poetry Prize encourages the submission of previously unpublished poetry manuscripts across a range of styles, themes, and forms.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 are accepted from Jan 20th through April 20th.
Congratulations to our 2023 Finalists and Semifinalists. Each will have a poem selected for publication in the Fall 2023 issue of Catamaran.
Finalists
Suzanne Lummis: Poems that Couldn't Make it in the Movies, from Los Angeles, California
Tina Schumann : Boneyard Heresies, from Seattle, Washington
Garnet Juniper Nelson: Angel Child: Poems, from Kelso, Washington
Maurya Simon: La Sirena, A Novella in Verse, from Mt. Baldy, California
Semifinalists
James Harms: Slow Hours, Blue Distance , from Escalon, California
Jose Oseguera: And This House is Only a Nest, from Stevenson Ranch, California
David Hargreaves: Such Contagious Chaos and Grace, from Coos Bay, Oregon
Statement on this year’s Catamaran Poetry Prize
Many thanks to all the poets who entered their work for this year’s Catamaran Poetry Prize. The pool of manuscripts was the largest we have ever received. That number alone is testimony to the incredible vitality of the poetry community on the West Coast of the United States. The poetry collections submitted were remarkably varied in their styles, projects, and subject matter. The regions that inspired the poems ranged from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California, The Northern California Bay Area, and Alaska. Many highly competitive manuscripts were entered, and to honor that, we have recognized, in addition to this year's winner, four finalists and three semifinalists. Congratulations to all the poets whose excellent work is celebrated here.
About Dorianne Laux:
The judge for our 2023 Catamaran poetry prize is Dorianne Laux. Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux’s most recent collection is Only As The Day Is Long: New and Selected, W.W. Norton. She is also author of The Book of Men, winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize and Facts about the Moon, winner of the Oregon Book Award. She teaches poetry at North Carolina State and Pacific University. In 2020, Laux was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.