Birdy Poetry Prize + Bart Edelman Judge's Feature + Cupping Our Palms Sneak Peek

 

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THE BIRDY POETRY PRIZE IS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!

In honor of this time of year, we will be celebrating myriad aspects of the Birdy Poetry Prize. We begin the celebration with a feature on the 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize judge, Bart Edelman, and the winning manuscript (soon-to-be-book) he selected, Cupping Our Palms by Jonathan Greenhause!

About Bart Edelman:

Bart Edelman was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and spent his childhood in Teaneck. He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Hofstra University. He has taught at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, Santa Monica College, West Los Angeles College, Long Beach City College, UCLA, and Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal. Most recently, he was appointed to the Affiliate Faculty in the MFA Program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Edelman served as Poet-in-Residence at Monroe College of the State University of New York. His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. He has been awarded grants and fellowships from the United States Department of Education, the University of Southern California, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin to conduct literary research in India, Egypt, Nigeria and Poland. In addition, he received National Endowment for the Humanities grants for a series of lectures at public libraries on “The Common Good: Individualism and Commitment in American Life,” and “Trails: Toward a New Western History.” Collections of his work include Crossing the Hackensack, Under Damaris’ Dress, The Alphabet of Love, The Gentle Man, The Last Mojito, The Geographer’s Wife, and Whistling to Trick the Wind. He lives in Pasadena, California.

Bart Edelman's Judge's Statement on Selecting Cupping Our Palms by Jonathan Greenhause as the 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner:

These provocative, trustworthy poems owe their strength to narrators who are not afraid to confront their own sense of awe, misgivings, and incredulity, as it pertains to their various stations in life. The prevailing subject of parenthood, and what it means to shepherd children through the stages of growth, keeps circling in this superb collection–none more so than in “The Perfect Dad.” Long before this final section, however, we witness personal journeys towards reconciliation and how to parent not only a child, but also humankind, on a practical, universal level. Cupping Our Palms has a stirring habit of casting its readers far out into a sea of curiosity and wonder, and, then, rather methodically, reeling or easing its audience back to shore, turn by gradual turn, through its eloquent language and structural change of pace. Compelling as “Beacons of Light,” “Not for Sale,” “Parabolic,” and “Relics” appear, they’re gateways to more profound questions the poet addresses and destiny poses, to all readers. Yes, here are rich, haunting poems, replete with honest voices whose declarations linger, long after the collection is complete–lessons well learned–but never quite at rest.

Learn more about Bart Edelman HERE

Poems from Cupping Our Palms

Learn more about, and preorder, Cupping Our Palms HERE

About Jonathan Greenhause:

Jonathan Greenhause has won the Ledbury Poetry Competition, Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Writing Award in Poetry, the Telluride Institute’s Fischer Poetry Prize, and the Prism Review Poetry Prize, and his poems have appeared in America, december, New York Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Poetry Society, The Rialto, RHINO, Subtropics, and the Times Literary Supplement. Jonathan lives in Jersey City with his wife and their two sons, all within a stone’s throw of the local freight line.