Congratulations, Alicia Rebecca Myers, 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner!

We are overjoyed to announce the winner of the 
2024 Birdy Poetry Prize, Warble by Alicia Rebecca Myers

Congratulations, Alicia!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alicia Rebecca Myers is a poet and essayist who holds an MFA in Poetry from NYU, where she was a Goldwater Writing Fellow. Her writing has appeared in publications that include Best New Poets, Creative Nonfiction, FIELD, River Styx, Gulf Coast, SWWIM, december, Threadcount, and The Rumpus. Her chapbook of poems, My Seaborgium (Brain Mill Press, 2015), was selected by Kiki Petrosino as winner of the inaugural Mineral Point Chapbook Series, and she has been the recipient of a Kimmel Harding Nelson residency for poetry and a Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference nonfiction scholarship. Warble is her first full-length book.

We would also like to extend a hearty congratulations to our Birdy finalists and semi-finalists!

Meadowlark would like to thank Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for serving as this year's judge.

Here, you can watch the recording of the announcement event, including readings from 2021-2014 winners: Alison Hicks (Knowing Is a Branching Trail), Jonathan Greenhause (Cupping Our Palms), Zachary Lundgren (Turkey Vulture), and Alicia Rebecca Myers (Warble)! Also included are comments on what Caryn found so alluring about Warble. Thank you to all who attended the event and made it a special, celebratory evening!

2023 Birdy Poetry Prize Event Recording

Whether you missed it or want to relive the fun, this year's Birdy Poetry Prize event recording is now available! Thank you to everyone involved, and congratulations again to all semi-finalists, finalists, and Zachary Lundgren for his winning poetry collection, Turkey Vulture!

Congratulations Zachary Lundgren - WINNER of the '23 Birdy Poetry Prize!

 

It is with great excitement that we share the announcements for the 2023 Birdy Poetry Prize with you! 

The winning poetry collection for our annual Birdy Poetry Prize is Turkey Vulture by Zachary Lundgren! Congratulations! 

About the Winner:
Zachary Lundgren was born in California and received his MFA in poetry from the University of South Florida. He has been published in several literary magazines and reviews, including The Columbia Review, The Wisconsin Review, Clockhouse, Beecher’s Magazine, and The Louisville Review. He received his PhD in rhetoric and composition from East Carolina University and now resides in Denver, Colorado. 

We are also happy to extend a warm congratulations to our finalists and semi-finalists! 

A recording of our announcement event, which took place on Friday, will be shared soon. Watch our featured Meadowlark readers, Zachary Lundgren, Alison Hicks ('21 winner, Knowing Is a Branching Trail), Jonathan Greenhause ('22 winner, Cupping Our Palms), Brian Daldorph ('20 finalist, Kansas Poems), and Ruth Maus ('19 finalist, Valentine) read, and hear why our 2023 guest judge, Melissa Fite Johnson, chose Turkey Vulture to win this prize. 

Zachary will receive $1,000, publication, and 50 copies of his book. Stay tuned!

Click Here to Learn More about the Birdy Poetry Prize

Click Here to Purchase Birdy Poetry Prize Books

PARTY TIME! 2023 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner Announcement + Reading

 

YOU'RE INVITED!
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2023 BIRDY POETRY PRIZE
VIRTUAL READINGS, WINNER, & FINALIST ANNOUNCEMENTS!

April 28, 7 p.m. CT
Register in advance at tinyurl.com/2023Birdy

Happy birthday to our newest Meadowlark poet + 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize Book!

Please take a moment to join us in a wishing a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jonathan Greenhause, 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize winner! Today, we celebrate the amazing Jonathan and this touching poetry collection (OUT NOW)!

Give Jonathan the gift of ordering his book, 

by clicking the book cover below!

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.

Don't forget to submit your full-length poetry manuscript for the 2023 Birdy Poetry Prize!

Accepting Entries: September 1 - December 1, 2022

Entry Fee: $25

Prize: $1,000 cash, publication by Meadowlark Press, including 50 copies of the completed book 

All entries will be considered for standard Meadowlark Press publishing contract offers, as well.  

Full-length poetry manuscripts (55 page minimum, 90+ pages preferred) will be considered. Poems may be previously published in journals and/or anthologies, but not in full-length, single-author volumes. Poets are eligible to enter, regardless of publishing history. 

Eligibility: (updated 8/9/2021)

Previous winners are NOT eligible to enter.

Previous Finalists ARE eligible to enter.

Manuscript Preparation

The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the document.

Do NOT include publication credits or lists of previously published work.  

Manuscript should include:  

• title of collection
• any section or division headings, if desired
• all poems to be included in the collection

 

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

 

Click on image above for submission details!

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.

Birdy Poetry Prize - NOW OPEN + 2022 Winner Available for Preorder!

COMING SOON!

Cupping Our Palms 

by Jonathan Greenhause

2022 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner

Cupping Our Palms explores the mysteries of life and elusiveness of answers to life’s questions. The narrators of these poems grow and change—choosing what to hold on to and what to let go—as mere human animals and as greater spiritual vessels. Winner of the 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize, by Meadowlark Press.

PREORDER HERE

Book launch event details to come...

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Also, you'll be happy to know, the annual Birdy Poetry Prize opens TODAY for submissions!

Here are the details:

Accepting Entries: September 1 - December 1, 2022

Entry Fee: $25

Prize: $1,000 cash, publication by Meadowlark Press, including 50 copies of the completed book 

All entries will be considered for standard Meadowlark Press publishing contract offers, as well.  

Full-length poetry manuscripts (55 page minimum, 90+ pages preferred) will be considered. Poems may be previously published in journals and/or anthologies, but not in full-length, single-author volumes. Poets are eligible to enter, regardless of publishing history. 

Eligibility: (updated 8/9/2021)

Previous winners are NOT eligible to enter.

Previous Finalists ARE eligible to enter.

Manuscript Preparation

The author’s name should not appear anywhere on the document. 

Manuscript should include:  

• title of collection
• any section or division headings, if desired
• all poems to be included in the collection

Click HERE to submit!