Rattle is proud to announce the winner of the 2010 Rattle Poetry Prize:

Patricia Smith
Howell, NJ
for
“Tavern. Tavern. Church. Shuttered Tavern,“

Honorable Mentions:

Michele Battiste, Boulder, CO — “Once More, With Feeling”

Heidi Garnett, Kelowna, BC — “Sin of Unrequited Love”     

Valentina Gnup, Portland, OR — “We Speak of August”

francine j. harris, Ann Arbor, MI — “Katherine with the lazy eye. short. and not a good poet.”

Courtney Kampa, Oak Hill, VA — “Avant-garde”

Courtney Kampa, Oak Hill, VA — “The Miscarriage”

Devon Miller-Duggan, Newark, DE — “Old Blue”

Andrew Nurkin, Highstown, NJ — “The Contest”

Laura Read, Spokane, WA — “This Time We’ll Go to Kentucky Fried Chicken”

Scott Withiam, Cambridge, MA — “The Petty Snow”

The 11 winning poems will be published in Rattle #34, which releases in December 2010.

Another 12 poems were selected for standard publication, and offered a space in the open section of Rattle #35.  These poets will be notified individually about details, but they are: Amanda Auchter, Heather Bell, Christeene Fraser, Linda Gottlieb, Daniel Leamen, Alison Luterman, Megan Moriarty, and Terry Spohn, along with additional poems by Patricia Smith and Scott Withiam.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition, which would not have been a success without your diverse and inspiring poems.  We received a total of 1,697 entries and well over 6,000 poems, and it was an honor to read each of them.