Pushcart Prize Nominations: VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW

I am pleased to report that I have received a letter from Bill Henderson, editor of the annual anthology, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, informing me that three poems published in the fall issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review (Volume XI, Number 1) have been nominated by the Board of Contributing Editors for Pushcart Press to be included in the upcoming 35th edition of the series.

Since 1976, Bill Henderson has brought added recognition to the many fine small presses and literary journals publishing quality material with his annual anthology. I am pleased to note that in recent years the nomination process for the Pushcart Prize has been opened to online journals.

The following poems from VPR were nominated by the Board of Contributing Editors, a distinguished body of authors that includes a number of the nation’s finest poets:

“Homily” by Sherman Alexie

“Aretha Franklin’s Inauguration Hat” by Cornelius Eady

“Molotov Cocktails” by Brian Turner

This news now brings to nine the total of Pushcart Prize nominations for works in the fall issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review. Last November, in response to an editor’s invitation to nominate poetry from Valparaiso Poetry Review for the Pushcart Prize, I was honored to announce that I had named six poems—works by Alfred Corn, Kwame Dawes, T.R. Hummer, Allison Joseph, Dorianne Laux, and Brian Turner.

As I mentioned at that time, I welcome the admirable efforts of the Pushcart Press and Bill Henderson to bring attention to the excellent literary works found in small presses and journals, in print and online. Moreover, I am grateful when an opportunity arises for some of Valparaiso Poetry Review’s splendid poets to reach an even larger audience and find the greater recognition they deserve through possible inclusion in such an anthology.

[Readers who enjoy Cornelius Eady’s poem will also appreciate Think: Poems for Aretha Franklin’s Inauguration Hat, a booklet edited by Patricia Spears-Jones and available online that contains various works inspired by the singer’s appearance at the Obama inauguration celebration.]