0

slideshow banner

 
 

In the spring of 2023, The Orchard Street Press conducted its sixth annual Poetry Contest.  Approximately 700 poems were sent by writers from forty states.

From those submissions, forty-five poems were selected for inclusion in Quiet Diamonds 2023: three for cash awards, including the 2023 winner of our Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize, Sam Barbee’s exceptional “Phantom Pain.”

 

I would like to thank all the poets who sent their work. It was our privilege to review some remarkable pieces, challenging our judges with the task of choosing the 7% or so that would ultimately be published. I thank them for taking on this difficult assignment.

 

John P. (Jack) Kristofco

Publisher

 

Prize-Winning Poems

First Prize, $500 and the Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize:

“Phantom Pain,” Sam Barbee; Winston Salem, NC

Second Prize, $300: “Fireweed,” Bill Griffin; Elkin, NC

Third Prize. $200: “Into Thy Hands,” Jennifer Stewart; Abilene, TX

 

Finalists

“The Uncertainty Principle,” Bill Glose; Yorktown, VA     

“Against Desecration.” Mary Makofske; Warwick, NY

“Almost Like a Maraca,”  Pat Anthony; Fontana, KS

“Romance From Nightfall to Dawn,” David Dragone; Middletown, RI

“How to Write an Elegy,” Kathryn Howd Machan; Ithaca, NY

“To Wake the Dead,” Charlotte Muse; Menlo Park, CA

“Reasons to Celebrate,” Cora McCann Linderbach; Lakewood, OH

“In Everything Once Was a Poem,” Susan C. Waters; Las Cruces, NM

“Inevitable,” Eleanor Lerman; Long Beach, NY

 

Semi-Finalists

“Adagio,” Annette Gagliardi; Minneapolis, MN

“A Thirst,” Elizabeth Chapman; Palo Alto, CA

“January,” Ben Onachila; Brevard, NC

“On This Silent Morning,” Lorraine Jeffery; Orem, UT

“Before Me, A Series Of Accidents,” Jean Mikhail; Athens, OH

“How the Moon Moved Me,” David Dragone

“It Was My Turn to Eat the Monsters And They Knew,” Michael John Olson; Hamilton, OH

“Speak Risk,” Mark Taksa; Curtis, CA

“Grotto,” Deborah Doolittle; Jacksonville, NC

“The Juxtaposed Open Their Boundaries to One Another,” Susan Jefts; Diamond Point, NY

“Doxology,” Karl Plank; Cornelius, NC

“Beachcombers,” Ron Scully; Burien, WA

“Sonata on a Hill High Above the Ocean,” Charlotte Muse

“The Next Last Word,” Sam Barbee

“Winter Visit,” Kim Karshner; Oberlin, OH

 

Honorable Mention

“Fatherland,” Mary Makofske

“Open Water,” Deborah Doolittle

“The Unearthing,” Susan Jefts

“Roadside Angel,” Kim Karshner

“In the Spring Shenandoah Valley,” Susan C. Waters

“Dawn Chorus,” Deborah Bachels Schmidt; El Sobrante, CA

“Harvest,” Judith H. Montgomery; Oregon City, OR

“holding pattern: 2020,” Cora McCann Linderbach

“Railroad Baron’s Bed,” Susan Craig; Columbia, SC

“A Stone’s Throw,” Jean Mikhail

“Fish,” Bob Wickless; Reidsville, NC

“Attendance,” Jean Wong; Kenwood, CA

“Adrift,” Jeanie Mortensen; Ludington, MI

“On Being Asked to Write About Home,” Eric Machan Howd; Ithaca, NY

“Still Life,” Charlie Becker; Laguna Woods, CA

“Sunrise,” Ben Onachila

“Facing It,” John J. Brugaletta; McKinleyville, CA

“Watching the writing that we leave,” Catherine Moran; Little Rock, AR

 

These poems make up Quiet Diamonds 2023, the sixth Edition of the annual poetry journal of The Orchard Street Press