Congratulations, Catherine Anderson, 2025 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner!

We are thrilled to announce the winner of the 
2025 Birdy Poetry Prize
Afloat by Catherine Anderson

Congratulations, Catherine!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Catherine Anderson has published four collections of poetry, including, Everyone I Love Immortal (Woodley Press); Woman with a Gambling Mania (Mayapple Press); The Work of Hands (Perugia Press) and In the Mother Tongue (Alice James Books). In 2022, a memoir about her dear, late brother who had nonverbal autism, My Brother Speaks in Dreams: Of Family, Beauty & Belonging, was published by Wising Up Press. She has been recognized for her poetry by the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation, the Southern Humanities Review, the I-70 Review and the Crab Orchard Review. Over the years, her poems have also appeared in the Southern Review, the Harvard Review, and the Dunes Review, among many others. She lives in Kansas City, where she has worked for over twenty years assisting new immigrants and refugees to become skilled interpreters.

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

Meadowlark would like to thank Jose Faus for serving as this year's judge.

Here, you can watch the recording of the announcement event, including readings from 2024 and 2025 winners, Alicia Rebecca Myers (Warble) and Catherine Anderson (Afloat), as well as readings from 2024 and 2025 finalists, Ruth Bardon (Witness) and Huascar Medina (Protest as Love Poem). Thank you to all who attended the event and made it a special, celebratory evening!

 

OUT NOW! Warble by Alicia Rebecca Myers - 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Winner

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

OUT NOW!
ORDER HERE!

About the Book:

The poems in Alicia Rebecca Myers’s debut collection explore a fascination with the phenomena within and beyond a person—whether becoming a mother or observing a sea turtle migration. The language is rich with metaphor but conversational and direct, with a compelling balance between prose and lineated poems. Myers finds in the everyday, in oxidized pesto and a crepe paper streamer, new ways of expressing shared experiences. She captures the full range of human emotion—sadness, grief, humor, and overarching love—as the poems process taking care of one aging parent in the wake of losing the other. Warble also contextualizes what it means to be a daughter and a mother in modern-day America by offering snapshots of pop culture and the wider American experience, from Love Is Blind to gun violence. This is a book that asks of us, “In a lifetime, what do we keep, and what do we release? What sings on beyond our time, and how are we immortalized by that music?” 

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, Rattle, and The Rumpus. Her chapbook of poems, My Seaborgium (Brain Mill Press, 2016), was selected as a 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.

 

A Comment from Our 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Judge:

Warble encompasses the poetry of connection to the life force, weaving and unraveling immersions into grief and birth, presence and yearning, mother love and father loss, blossom and flight. These poems are compelling, brave, intimate, and, most of all, unafraid of telling the truth. I found that once I started reading them, I couldn’t stop, and I was called back to re-read many stunning dives into the tender and fierce edges of life, such as the complex compassion in “Addling,” the daring energy in “Open Water,” and the breathless love of “You Ask Me to Tell You the Story.” The title itself—Warble—speaks to that in-between state (as well as a bird) of being alive, trilling through each poem. 

I picked this collection because of how deeply the poet wrote from what Edward Hirsch calls “the poetry of affection,” the poetry that connect us to our innate and vulnerable humanness. This quality is so vital when it comes to working with the fragments of brokenness, despair, and horror around us to craft a life, sustain a community, and behold the living earth with wonder and courage.

—Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Judge, Poet Laureate of Kansas (2009-2013), author of How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems

OUT NOW! Witness by Ruth Bardon - 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Finalist

Meadowlark Press is proud to announce the publication of the 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize Finalist, Witness by Ruth Bardon!

Order Here!

About Witness:
Finalist of the 2024 Birdy Poetry Prize

Ruth Bardon’s debut poetry collection takes you by surprise.  These confident poems—written in succinct, definitive, and easily digestible diction—take specific moments from her early, middle, and later years and turn them into stories that are evocative and mysterious.

About the Author:
Ruth Bardon grew up in Highland Park, New Jersey, and lived in a number of midwestern cities before firmly settling in Durham, North Carolina. She received an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop in 1982 and a PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. Her poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Boulevard, The Cincinnati Review, New Ohio Review, Salamander, and other journals. She is the author of two chapbooks: Demon Barber (Main Street Rag, 2020) and What You Wish For (Finishing Line Press, 2023). She is also the author of Selected Short Stories of William Dean Howells (Ohio University Press, 1997).

Praise for Witness:
If specificity is indeed universal, then Ruth Bardon’s Witness is a debut poetry collection for us all. Imbued with the rich details of life, these tightly crafted yet generous poems enlarge our days with vision and grace. “I think of how strong I was,” Bardon writes, “slicing through a world / where I couldn’t even breathe, / and claiming it as mine.” These are works of wonder and precision, and whether turning a keen eye toward a solar eclipse, a truck packed with caged chickens, strange new technologies, or her own indelible past, Bardon’s poems implore us to pay attention, to bear witness to the horrors and wild joys of existence.
—Jared Harél, Let Our Bodies Change the Subject

There’s a passion just below the surface of Ruth Bardon’s poems that sometimes rips its way out, as it does in the last lines of “Near the End”: “I just wanted to make my voice / into something jagged and sharp / and to slash somebody with it.” We’re not told exactly what’s going on in this hospital scene, but we sense the extreme emotion of the speaker. The same thing happens at the end of “Typography,” in which the good girl in nursery school misbehaves because after earning only green or yellow lights, she “wanted to know how red would feel.” But, in “Typography,” and in Bardon’s poetry in general, we’re more likely to find emotion expressed “by taking the time / to find the perfect word,” whether the poem is centered on the significant events of family life and stories of birth and death or on stories of hurricanes, floods, and Halley’s Comet. Dividing her poems into three sections—Early Years, Middle Years, Later Years—Bardon is “claiming [life] as mine,” and she claims it for us too, as witnesses.
—Brian Daldorph, Kansas Poems and Words Is a Powerful Thing
 
Witness explores the ways in which the stories that make up families continue to be written in the margins of our personal stories. Bardon’s intuition for narrative is guided by a poetic sensibility that uses images and lyricism to recreate memories and experiences. While time acts as the framework of Witness, its poems speak to the present moment in perceptive ways. Nuanced and inviting, Witness teaches us to see.
—José Angel Araguz, Rotura and Ruin & Want

In Witness, Ruth Bardon’s use of precise spare language and perfect metaphors captures and penetrates the essence of each subject like the stabbing of a squirming bug. It is a monument to modern life, full of understated emotion, excellent and fine. Thank you, Ruth, for giving the world this collection.
—Ruth Maus, Valentine and Puzzled

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 Winner Now Available for Pre-order: Turkey Vulture by Zachary Lundgren

In April, Meadowlark Press announced Turkey Vulture by Zachary Lundgren as the 2023 Birdy Poetry Prize winner! Now, we are ready to put the book in your hands! Pre-order Turkey Vulture today, and stay tuned for book launch details!

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER TURKEY VULTURE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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. 

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Birdy Poetry Prize - Now Open for Submissions

 It’s that time of year again! Show us what you’ve got!

Submit your full-length poetry manuscript any time between now and December first for a chance to win $1,000, publication with yours truly, and 50 free copies of your book! #birdypoetryprize

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!
*****************

2023 BIRDY POETRY PRIZE
VIRTUAL READINGS, WINNER, & FINALIST ANNOUNCEMENTS!

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

Birdy 2022 Finalist Book Out Now! + Contest Submission Reminder

Meadowlark Press is proud to announce the release of No Matter How It Ends by E.J. Rode!

Reader beware. This book of poetry will hold you captive. E.J. Rode dares to write that “Love is always a miracle—no matter how it ends.” She speaks of unbearable loss. “Growing old was something—we’d do—together.” “Didn’t you know—that you were the story—I always wanted to hear.” She remembers, “. . .my hand against your skin—never wishing I’d touched you less.” She faces despair and cries out, “. . .over and over again I find myself lost.”  “Even the truth has learned to lie.” Repeatedly, she returns to the moon for solace, a moon that is “always too much, and never enough.” She “. . .silently scolds the clock for ticking.” She declares, “. . .of my failings I can only tell—I’ve fallen short—but loved so well.” She abides by her advice: “Write poems you fear no one will like. . .” Truth at all cost. Expect nothing else from this poet. No Matter How It Ends is a masterpiece by a highly skilled poet who dares to live life on her own terms.

—Marcel Aimé Duclos, author of Unavoidable. . . evade dying at your own peril (Black Forest Publishing, 2021)

About the Author:

E.J. has spent most of her life choosing the roads less traveled. She finds joy, sorrow, and, frequently, wisdom in almost everyone she meets. Her work resonates because it is reflective of how much we are alike, even when we differ. Although she has tried her hand at many forms of writing, from fiction and newspaper columns to essays, she always returns to poetry, her first love.

E.J.’s poetry has appeared in Third Wednesday, The Josephine Quarterly, And/Both Magazine, Zephyr Press, and Colorado Living.

 

 

ORDER HERE!

 

We would also like to take this opportunity to invite YOU to submit your poetry manuscript for the 2023 Birdy Poetry Prize contest!

Submissions are open through 11:59 p.m. on December 1! 

Details are as follows, as well as found at birdypoetryprize.com:

 

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. 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:  

o   title of collection

o   any section or division headings, if desired

o   all poems to be included in the collection

SUBMIT HERE!

 

 

Have you submitted to the Birdy Poetry Prize contest yet? Open until Dec. 1!

 Let the countdown begin! Birdy Poetry Prize submissions are open now until December 1!

SUBMIT HERE

View previous winners & finalists HERE

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