2012 Akron Poetry Prize Winner

Thievery by Seth Abramson wins 2012 Akron Poetry Prize

Dara Wier, this year’s judge, has chosen Thievery by Seth Abramson of Madison, Wisconsin as the 2012 Akron Poetry Prize winner. The contest winner was selected from a total of 396 entries. Signaletics by Emilia Phillips of Richmond, Virginia, is the Editor’s Choice selection for 2012.

About Abramson’s work, Wier comments:

Here is a book that is truly quietly deeply subtle. It appears to operate along the lines of here is how one thing follows another; it appears to rely on anticipated cause and effect to spring us forth from one fraction of a split second's thought to the next. There are many and then actions in this book. What follows comes as a surprise sometimes even when it shouldn't. For instance, at one poem's conclusion it says: An archer shoots. That's what an archer does. And this is astonishing. And then it is almost heartbreaking and then one must do a double take and then there is poetry.

Wier also named chorus [interstice] by Endi Bogue Hartigan as her honorable mention.

The judge for the 2013 Akron Poetry Prize will be David Kirby. Kirby is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University. A Johns Hopkins PhD, he has received many honors for his work, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and his work appears regularly in the Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize volumes. Kirby is the author of numerous books, including The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems, which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award in poetry.  His Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll was named one of Booklist’s Top 10 Black History Non-Fiction Books of 2010, and the Times Literary Supplement called it “a hymn of praise to the emancipatory power of nonsense.” Kirby’s latest poetry collection is Talking About Movies With Jesus.

Full guidelines may be found here.

2012 FINALISTS
J. L. Conrad, Disaster Fruit
Rebecca Hazelton, Vow
Emilia Phillips, Signaletics
Joshua Ware, Imaginary You
Seth Abramson, Thievery
Endi Bogue Hartigan, chorus [interstice]
Maria Hummel, House and Fire
Danielle Pafunda, The Dead Girls Speak in Unison
Corey van Landingham, Dear Body Count, Dear Bother
Marc McKee, Consolationeer
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, a slice from the cake made of air
Michael Loughran, Trouble Everywhere
Cori A. Winrock, This Coalition of Bones
Joanna Fuhrman, My Life as an Idea

2012 SEMI-FINALISTS
Renée Ashley, Because I Am the Shore I Want to Be the Sea
Hadara Bar-Nadav, Lullaby (with Exit Sign)
Thea Brown, Essay
Kristen Case, Temple
Victoria Chang, The Boss
Elizabeth J. Colen, What Weaponry
Lisa Fay Coutley, Errata
Rebecca Dunham, Selvage
Jonterri Gadson, Expecting Magic
Kimberly Grey, The Opposite of Robot is Light
Stephanie Kartalopoulos, Amulet
Genevieve Kaplan, (aviary)
Jason Koo, America’s Favorite Poem
Sandy Longhorn, In a World Made of Such Weather as This
Dawn Lonsinger, whelm
Debra Marquart, Small Buried Things
Gary L. McDowell, Weeping at a Stranger’s Funeral
Keith Montesano, Sirens and Wildfire
Miguel Murphy, Green Is the Sword
Frances Justine Post, Beast
Cat Richardson, Honeyglass
F. Daniel Rzicznek, Demon
Angela Veronica Wong, The Elsa Poems
LaWanda Walters, No One Needs a Swimsuit at the Free Museum