February 25, 2009

Review by Ted Gilley

ALSO IN ARCADIA
by Andrew Mulvania

Backwaters Press
3502 North 52nd St.
Omaha, NE 68104-3506
ISBN 978-0-9816936-3-7
2008, 67 pp., $16.00
http://thebackwaterspress.com/

Andrew Mulvania’s present-day Arcadia lies in the southern part of the United States, just as the Arcadia of legend lay, similarly isolated, in the Peloponnesus of Greece. Rural Missouri, while less remote, nevertheless qualifies as the kind of place out of which genuine, if obscure, legends might arise. In Mulvania’s hands, the life of small towns and a family farm, conducted in a somewhat somber pageant of narratives balanced by near-perfect lyric elegies, carves a chapter into the black earth of southern literature with the sureness—and occasional unsteadiness—of a horse-drawn plow.

The poems of how-to and make-do, of fishing by lamplight, of picking blackberries, exploring creaky barns, of county fairs and country characters in church basements, are rendered at length in unrelenting, determined detail. One’s pleasure in reading about the childrens’ Halloween celebration (“All Hallows Eve, Solid Rock Baptist Church”) is diminished by the lack of pleasure the poet seems to feel in describing it; the poem has the timbre, pacing, and studied affect of a dutifully delivered sermon. In poems of similar tone, such as “Osage County Fair” and “Putting in the Garden,” Mulvania takes such pains in description, you wish he’d move along a little more smartly, only to discover in the end that description was the point. Is that ever enough?

(more…)

Rattle Logo

November 6, 2008

Pam O’Brien

COUNTING COUPONS WITH THE ITALIAN LADIES

My mother marched across the street, convinced
Al Vicks to give me a job,
anything at all would be fine,
as long as it kept me off the beach,
as long as my 15-year-old body
in the pink bikini wasn’t beckoning
to every boy who passed by.

The next Monday, there I was
the youngest girl at PA Food Merchants Assn.
eight to five
third floor
screeching window fans
counting coupons with six loud ladies
sliding those coupons into wooden slots
Palmolive on the far left
Colgate in the middle
Campbells on the right
ranking them
5
10
15
cents.

There I was
the only worker under 50,
the only one who didn’t speak Italian.
The ladies bellowed scusa, aiutare, cuore, luce.
Sometimes they fed me bites
of their lunches, leftover casseroles,
garlic, flat noodles.

Angie, Lena, Marion, Maria
and two others whose names are gone now.
They talked about grandchildren, bunions,
red peppers on sale at the A&P,
stroked my hair, called me bella,
things my mother never did.

from Rattle #25, Summer 2006

Rattle Logo

August 29, 2008

Mary H. Palmer, RN, C, PhD

THE SEA TURTLE

Shoulder-deep in the sea turtle’s nest,
I search for remains, nothing alive.
The tiny turtles would have climbed
over each other, forming a living ladder
out of their sandy birth canal
leaving only the unhatched and dead behind.
Mongoose would have gotten any stragglers.
I am here only to count egg shells.

My hand reaches bottom and scoops up
sand and bits of leathery shells. In their midst,
I find a black soft lump, a hatchling left behind.
It remains listless until I gently stroke its belly
until its life flickers and catches hold
as a flame lays claim to a
candle wick.

It doesn’t have much of a chance.
Pelicans already circle. But waiting until night
so it can follow the moon to the
water is a death sentence too. I place it on
the sloping beach and whisper a prayer.
Without a backward glance
it paddles towards the water.
The waves are merciless,
cartwheeling it in the foam.
Head over tail. Head over tail.

But it finds a current and starts its slow
submerged swim, a speck in the sea.
Too far in to return, the turtle breaks the
glimmering surface and takes its first
sea-borne breath.

from Rattle #28, Winter 2007

__________

Mary H. Palmer: “Poetry has been an important part of my life for many years. I see life as interwoven events and emotions forming unique patterns. ‘The Sea Turtle’ sprang into life after taking a morning walk with a park ranger and watching her investigate a disrupted sea turtle nest. This poem was my attempt to convey the irrepressible drive to survive in a hostile world.”

Rattle Logo

March 2, 2001

New at Rattle

 
December 12, 2023

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2023:

Ocean Ancient and Evolving” by Kat Lehmann (Spring 2023)
Outside Quang Tri City, 1968” by Bruce Weigl (Summer 2023)
This Again” by Bob Hicok (Poets Respond online, October 2023)
“They Ask If I’ve Seen the News” by Rami Frawi (Winter 2023)
“Leaf Removal” by Al Ortolani (Winter 2023)
“Time Travel for Beginners” by Ardon Shorr (Winter 2023)

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
November 30, 2022

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2022:

Soprano from the Junior Choir at the Protest” by Shawn Jones (Summer 2022)
The Fates” by David Kirby (Fall 2022)
“State of Grace” by Anna M. Evans (Winter 2022)
“Shoes” by L. Renée (Winter 2022)
I Tell My Son to Cover Himself in Someone Else’s Blood” by Rachel Mallalieu (Poets Respond)
silent after” by Joshua Eric Williams (Poets Respond)

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
December 14, 2021

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2021:

A Question of Time” by Kathleen Dale (Spring 2021)
Can We Touch Your Hair?” by Skye Jackson (Spring 2021)
Prayer for Mr. Armand Palakiko” by Robert Lynn (Spring 2021)
Ninety-Nine” by Clemonce Heard (Summer 2021)
23 Miners Dead at Century Mine” by donnarkevic (Summer 2021)
“Encephalon” by Ann Giard-Chase (Winter 2021)

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
November 30, 2020

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2020:

The Gray Man” by Jimmy Pappas, from Falling off the Empire State Building, March 2020
Coronavirus in China” by Anthony Tao, from Poets Respond, online, February 23, 2020
After a Shooting in a Maternity Clinic in Kabul” by Tishani Doshi, online, May 26, 2020
Social Experiment in Which I Am the [Bear]” by William Evans, Rattle #67, Spring 2020
To My Student with the Dime-Sized Bruises …” by Laurie Uttich, Rattle #69, Fall 2020
Pantoum from the Window of the Room Where I Write” by Alison Townsend, Rattle #70, Winter 2020

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 15, 2020

Congratulations to Alison Townsend, winner of the 2019 Rattle Poetry Prize, for her poem “Pantoum from the Window of the Room Where I Write.” The award is $15,000, and the poem will be published in issue #70 of Rattle in December 2020. Ten Finalists each received $500 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $5,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 
June 1, 2020

Congratulations to Ted Kooser and John Philip Johnson on winning 2020 Pushcart Prizes for “A Town Somewhere” and “Book of Fly,” respectively.

 
March 10, 2020

Rattle is happy to announce the following additional Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2018, selected by their board of contributing editors:

Slut” by Ukamaka Olisakwe, Rattle #65, Fall 2019
“Stroke” by Matthew Dickman, Rattle #66, Winter 2019
“The Other While Ago” by Tim Skeen, Rattle #66, Winter 2019
“In the Endoscopy Center” by Wendy Barker, Rattle #66, Winter 2019
Late Sonogram” by Amanda Newell, Poets Respond (May 28, 2019)

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then chooses winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
January 1, 2020

Effective immediately, we are doubling all of our payments for poems! Starting the first of the year, we will be paying $200 for poems in our print issues, and $100 for poems featured online.

 
November 26, 2019

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2019:

The Book of Fly” by John Philip Johnson, Rattle #63, Spring 2019
Stern” by Al Maginnes, Rattle #63, Spring 2019
What My Children Remember” by Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, Rattle #65, Fall 2019
Slut” by Ukamaka Olisakwe, Rattle #65, Fall 2019
“Stroke” by Matthew Dickman, Rattle #66, Winter 2019
Abundance” by Amy Schmidt, Poets Respond (January 20, 2019)

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 15, 2019

Congratulations to Matthew Dickman, winner of the 2019 Rattle Poetry Prize, for his poem “Stroke.” The award is $10,000, and the poem will be published in issue #66 of Rattle in December 2019. Ten Finalists each received $200 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

March 10, 2019

Rattle is happy to announce the following additional Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2018, selected by their board of contributing editors:

Nancy Miller Gomez – “Growing Apples
Mather Schneider – “The Zoo,” from A Bag of Hands
Mike White – “The Way” (online in April)
Guinotte Wise – “The Why of Bull Riding
Dante Di Stefano – “In a James Dickey Poem
Megan Falley – “Ode to Red Lipstick

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then chooses winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
March 1, 2019

Congratulations to James Valvis, winner of the 2019 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for his poem “The Distracted.” The annual award of $1,000 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
February 15, 2019

Congratulations to Katie Bickham, winner of the 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award, for “The Blades.” The prize is $2,000. Subscribers voted for the winner, from ten editor-chosen finalists. To read some of what our readers said about this and the other finalist poems, click here.

 
November 29, 2018

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2018:

“To the Firefighters Sleeping in the Yard” by Amy Miller, Poets Respond (online), August 2018
Dog at the Farm” by Timothy DeJong, Rattle #60, Summer 2018
Meditation on a Dining Room Table” by Marvin Artis, Rattle #61, Fall 2018
“The Distracted” by James Valvis, Rattle #61, Fall 2018
TBA, Rattle #62, Winter 2018
TBA, Rattle #62, Winter 2018

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 27, 2018

Rattle is happy to announce the following Sundress Best of the Net nominations. In other words, these are the “best” six online-only poems we’ve published in the last year, by our estimation:

Open Carry” by Rebecca Starks
Violence Fractal” by Molly Fisk
Getting Sober” by James Croal Jackson
Ode to Mennel Ibtissam …” by George Abraham
The Choicest Parts” by Jhoanna Belfer
The World Entire” by Amy Miller

For more information on the Best of the Net series, visit the Sundress Publications website.

 
September 15, 2018

Congratulations to Dave Harris, winner of the 2018 Rattle Poetry Prize, for his poem “Turbulence.” The award is $10,000, and the poem will be published in issue #62 of Rattle in December 2018. Ten Finalists each received $200 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 
April 15, 2018

Congratulations to Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, Nickole Brown, and Elizabeth S. Wolf, winners of the 2018 Rattle Chapbook Prize. The chapbook will be distributed to all 8,000+ subscribers along with three separate future issues of Rattle. Subscribe today to receive each of these three books over the next year!

 
March 1, 2018

Congratulations to Rebecca Starks, winner of the 2018 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for her poem “Open Carry.” The annual award of $1,000 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
February 15, 2018

Congratulations to Jimmy Pappas, winner of the 2017 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award, for “Bobby’s Story.” The prize is $2,000. Subscribers voted for the winner, from ten editor-chosen finalists. To read some of what our readers said about this and the other finalist poems, click here.

 
November 28, 2017

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2017:

Spring” by Sara Springer – Summer 2017
Containment” by Francesca Bell – Summer 2017
In Which I Name My Abuser Publicly” by Meghann Plunkett – Poets Respond
“Phases of Erasure” by Bill Glose – Winter 2017
“Heard” by Rayon Lennon – Winter 2017
In America” by Diana Goetsch – In America

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 29, 2017

Rattle is happy to announce the following Sundress Best of the Net nominations. In other words, these are the “best” six online-only poems we’ve published in the last year, by our estimation:

In Which I Name My Abuser Publicly” by Meghann Plunkett
Violaceae” by Jose A. Alcantara
What We Did in the Resistance (Part 1)” by Alison Luterman
Pause” by Mai-Lan Pham
Call Me by My Name” by Jamaica Baldwin
How I Am Like Donald Trump” by Rachel Custer

For more information on the Best of the Net series, visit the Sundress Publications website.

 
September 15, 2017

Congratulations to Rayon Lennon, winner of the 2017 Rattle Poetry Prize, for his poem “Heard.” The poem earned $10,000 and will be published in issue #58 of Rattle in December 2017. Ten Finalists each received $200 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 
April 15, 2017

Congratulations to Taylor Mali, winner of the 2017 Rattle Chapbook Prize for The Whetting Stone. The chapbook will be distributed to all 7,500+ subscribers along with the Fall 2017 issue of Rattle. Two runners-up will also receive publication and full distribution: In America by Diana Goetsch will appear with the Winter 2017 issue, and A Bag of Hands by Mather Schneider will appear with the Spring 2018 issue.

 
March 13, 2017

Rattle is happy to announce the following additional Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2016, selected by their board of editors:

Abby E. Murray – “Prayer on National Childfree Day
Brendan Constantine – “Red Sugar Blue Smoke
Zeina Hashem Beck – “You Fixed It
Jennifer Jean – “#CarryThatWeight
Anna M. Evans – “The Adjunct’s Villanelle
Julie Price Pinkerton – “After I Got the Email …
David Kirby – “This Living Hand
Emily Ransdell – “The Visit
Chrys Tobey – “For the Archaeologist …

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then chooses winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
March 1, 2017

Congratulations to Kelly Grace Thomas, winner of the 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for her poem “And the Women Said.” The annual award of $1,000 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
February 15, 2017

Congratulations to Ellen Bass and David Kirby, co-winners of the 2016 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award, for “This Living Hand” and “Poem Written in the Sixth Month of My Wife’s Illness,” respectively. Their poets split the $2,000 prize. Subscribers voted for the winner, from ten editor-chosen finalists. To read some of what our readers said about this and the other finalist poems, click here.

 
November 29, 2016

Rattle is pleased to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2016:

How My Mother Spends Her Nights” by Rasaq Malik Gbolahan – Spring 2016
And the Women Said” by Kelly Grace Thomas – Spring 2016
Deadbeat” by Nancy Gomez – Summer 2016
A Handbook for the Blind” by Darren Morris – Fall 2016
Veins” by Julie Price Pinkerton – Winter 2016
Superposition of States” by Ingrid Jendrzejewski – Winter 2016

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 25, 2016

Rattle is happy to announce the following Sundress Best of the Net nominations. In other words, these are the “best” six online-only poems we’ve published in the last year, by our estimation:

Divining” by Rosemerry Trommer
[Here, said the ocean]” by Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr.
Ghazal: Back Home” by Zeina Hashem Beck
While Reading the News” by Leila Chatti
To the Woman Who Ruled …” by Bayleigh Fraser
I Am Over Here Sobbing” by Amy Miller

For more information on the Best of the Net series, visit the Sundress Publications website.

 
September 15, 2016

Congratulations to Julie Price Pinkerton, winner of the 2016 Rattle Poetry Prize, for her poem “Veins.” The poem earned her $10,000 and will be published in issue #54 of Rattle in December 2016. Ten Finalists each received $200 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 

May 16, 2016

Congratulations to David Kirby, who won a Pushcart Prize for his poem “More Than This,” from issue #50. The poem will be reprinted in the Pushcart Prize anthology at the end of 2016.

 
April 15, 2016

Congratulations to Zeina Hashem Beck, winner of the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize for 3arabi Song. The chapbook will be distributed to all 7,500+ subscribers along with an issue at the end of the year; one of the runners-up will also be distributed to each subscriber at random, so that everyone receives two chapbooks. The runners-up were: “Kill the Dogs” by Heather Bell, “Ligatures” by Denise Miller, and “Turn Left Before Morning” by April Salzano. All four chapbooks will be available for individual sale.

 
March 8, 2016

Congratulations to Jack Vian, winner of the 2016 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for his poem “Musashi-san.” The annual award of now $1,000 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
March 4, 2016

Congratulations to Jennifer Givhan for winning the 2015 Lascaux Prize in Poetry for her poem, “The Polar Bear,” which first appeared in Rattle’s Poets Respond series in May 2015. She earned $1,000 from the Lascaux Review. Read the poem again and find more about the Lascaux Prize at their site, here.

 
February 29, 2016

Rattle is happy to announce the following additional Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2015, selected by their board of editors:

Don Kimball – “Burial for a Stray
Ethan Joella – “A Prayer for Ducks
Lynn Levin – “Buying Produce …
Peter Munro – “If This Is Middle Age …
Matthew J. Spireng – “Dog Sitting in Snow
Dennis Trudell – “Holiday Tale
Rachael Briggs – “A Total Non-Apology
David Kirby – “More Than This

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then chooses winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
February 15, 2016

Congratulations to Valentina Gnup, winner of the 2014 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award, for “Morning at the Welfare Office.” Her poem earned her $2,000. Subscribers voted for the winner, from ten editor-chosen finalists. To read some of what our readers said about this and the other finalist poems, click here.

 
November 25, 2015

Rattle is happy to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2015:

Roberta Beary, “Genetics” – Spring 2015
Franny Choi, “Home (Initial Findings)” – Fall 2015
Dennis Trudell, “Holiday Tale” – Fall 2015
Tiana Clark, “Equilibrium” – Winter 2015
Patricia Smith, “Elegy” – Winter 2015
Zeina Hashem Beck, “Ghazal: Back Home” – Poets Respond

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 15, 2015

Congratulations to Tiana Clark, winner of the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize, for her poem “Equilibrium.” The poem earned her $10,000 and will be published in issue #50 of Rattle in December 2015. Ten Finalists each received $200 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 
March 9, 2015

Rattle is happy to announce the following additional Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2014, selected by their board of editors:

Jill Jupen – “The Space Between
David Cavanagh – “The Ice Man
Troy Jollimore – “Cutting Room
Marianne Kunkel – “I Guess
Bruce Taylor – “Good News Bad News
William Trowbridge – “Battleground
Chris Anderson – “The Blessing
Peter Murphy – “Grand Fugue
Rita Mae Reese – “The Problem of Empathy
Aisha Sharif – “Why I Can Dance Down a Soul-Train Line …
Craig van Rooyen – “Waiting in Vain”

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
March 1, 2015

Congratulations to Hannah Gamble, winner of the 2015 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for her poem “Biscuit.” The annual award of $500 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
February 15, 2015

Congratulations to Courtney Kampa, winner of the 2014 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award, for “Poems About Grace.” Her poem earned her $1,000. Subscribers voted for the winner, from ten editor-chosen finalists. To read some of what our readers said about this and the other finalist poems, click here.

 
February 1, 2015

Thanks to Sherman Alexie for selecting Danielle DeTiberus’s “In a Black Tank Top” from Rattle #43 for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2015, forthcoming from Scribner in September 2015.

 
November 25, 2014

Rattle is happy to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2014:

“Crown for a Young Marriage” by Mary Block (#43)
“Tamara” by Troy Jollimore (#43)
“Your Fat Daughter Remembers …” by Lucas Crawford (#44)
“Blessing” by Chris Anderson (#45)
“Waiting in Vain” by Craig van Rooyen (#46)
“A Spokesperson Said …” by Sonia Greenfield (Poets Respond)

Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
September 15, 2014

Congratulations to Craig van Rooyen, winner of the 2014 Rattle Poetry Prize, for his poem “Waiting in Vain.” His poem earned him $5,000 and will be published in issue #46 of Rattle in December 2014. Ten Finalists each received $100 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 
June 1, 2014

Rattle is excited to announce a new series, Poets Respond, in which poets are encouraged to write and submit new poems based on news items from the last week. A response poem will appear each Sunday, and each author will receive $25. To read poems from past week, and for information on submitting your own work, visit the Poets Respond page.

 
March 7, 2014

Congratulations to Francesca Bell, winner of the  2014 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for her poem “Where We Are Most Tender.” The annual award of $500 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
January 13, 2014

Rattle is excited to announce that, beginning in 2014, we will be able to pay all of our poets. Contributors to the magazine will receive $50 per poem/essay, in addition to the complimentary subscription. For information on how to submit, read our guidelines.

 
December 1, 2013

Rattle has just released the first annual Rattle Young Poets Anthology, featuring 60 poets under the age of 16. For more information, visit the page.

 
November 11, 2013

Rattle is happy to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2013:

Roberto Ascalon, “The Fire This Time,” #42
Bill Christophersen, “Hole,” #40
Joel F. Johnson, “Oakbrook Estates,” #39
Lynne Knight, “While Plum Blossoms Sweep Down Like Snow,” #42
Jon Sands, “Decoded,” #40
Julia Clare Tillinghast, “Bells,” #41

We have three editors, so we each just chose our favorite two poems from 2013. Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 

October 23, 2013

We noticed an error in our Privacy Policy and have updated it to fix the mistake. It previously said that this website does not use cookies, but WordPress actually does use a few cookies for your convenience when you comment. To view the full policy, click here.

 
September 15, 2013

Congratulations to Roberto Ascalon, winner of the 2013 Rattle Poetry Prize, for his poem “The Fire This Time.” His poem earned him $5,000 and will be published in issue #42 of Rattle in December 2013. Ten Finalists each received $100 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 
June 23, 2013

Rattle is happy to announce a new annual anthology of poetry written by young people. The Rattle Young Poets Anthology will be a stand-alone volume of poetry written by poets ages 15 and younger, releasing in December of each year. For more information, see the Young Poets page.

 
February 13, 2013

Congratulations to Eugenia Leigh, winner of the  2013 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor for her poem “Destination: Beautiful.” The annual award of $500 is given to the poem that exhibits the best use of metaphor among all of the submissions Rattle received over the previous year. For more information, see the Postman Award page.

 
December 15, 2012

Issue #38, and hopefully all subsequent issues, will now be available in the ebook format. You can purchase individual copies for the Nook and other ePub readers at BarnesandNoble.com and for the Kindle at Amazon.com. We’re also providing free ebook version for all print subscribers. To download your files, foll

 
November 27, 2012

Rattle is happy to announce the following Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2012:

Erik Campbell, “Great Caesar’s Ghost,” #37
Joanne Koong, “Clockwork Conjectures,” #38
Ken Meisel, “Woman Releasing a Tonguelss…” #37
Rebecca Schumejda, “How to Classify a Reptile,” #37
Heidi Shuler, “Trials of a Teenage Transvestite’s…” #38
David Wagoner, “The Plumber’s Nightmare,” #37

We have three editors, so we each just chose our favorite two poems from 2012. Nominees are sent to Pushcart Press, who then choose winners to reprint in their annual anthology. For more information on the Pushcart Prize, visit them here.

 
November 1, 2012

Rattle is excited to officially announced that we’ll begin quarterly publication in 2013. New, slimmer issues will appear every March, June, September, and December. Spring and Fall issues will be entirely dedicated to a theme, Summer and Winter will be open to anything. Our subscription prices will only be going up very slightly, to cover some of the extra postage, but subscribe or renew by the end of 2012 to receive quarterly issues at the biannual rates! To order, go here.

 
September 15, 2012

Congratulations to Heidi Shuler, winner of the 2012 Rattle Poetry Prize, for her poem “The Trials of a Teenage Transvestite’s Single Mother.”  Her poem earned her $5,000 and will be published in issue #38 of Rattle in December 2012. Ten Finalists each received $100 and publication, as well as a chance to win the $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber vote. For more information on the winners, click here.

 

June 1, 2012

Rattle is happy to introduce a new reading series at the Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeeshop in La-Canada, CA.  Join us at 5 p.m. on the first Sunday of every month for a selection of readers from the current issue. For more information, and a schedule of readers, check the Reading Series page.
 

February 15, 2001

Rattle is proud to announce the winners of the 2017 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers’ Choice Award:

Jimmy Pappas

Jimmy Pappas
Chichester, New Hampshire
for
“Bobby’s Story”

 
The 2017 Readers’ Choice Award was selected from among the Rattle Poetry Prize finalists by subscriber vote. Only those with active subscriptions including issue #58 were eligible. “Bobby’s Story” earned 16.4% of the votes and the $2,000 award. Here is what some of those readers had to say about their choice:

All the poems are winners in their own right, but I kept coming back to this poem by Pappas for how he examined each part of Bobby’s persona, deepening the story of the jungle fighter with each scene and turned the true speak of this character into poetry and how then Pappas introduced each character to reveal another side of Bobby. It was “like” an American tragedy that goes on every day in the “life” of vets, and keeps being played out with no one paying any attention. He gives Bobby a proper burial in this drama/poem through the voice of Ron who buys Bobby flowers as Bobby did for his buddies. Thanks for writing this, Jimmy. You got me.
—Perie Longo

I think this poem captures very well what an actual vet’s experience is, not something conjured up either political party to suit the latest fashion for policy. The fragmented style mimics the lives and minds that have been forever star-bursted by the burden of the dual life they lead.
—Katherine Friedman

It’s ambitious and a fine piece of storytelling.
—Kim Tedrow

In the end, I’m choosing “Bobby’s Story” because it lives up to the writer’s promises: it isn’t fancy, it is good, it doesn’t rhyme, and it makes Bobby unforgettable. Poems can “rattle” for all kinds of reasons. This one does because of its subject, a fully human human being. It’s hard not to vote for that.
—Sean Kelbley

To read these poems, pick up a copy of Rattle #58, or wait until the end of March, when those poems start appearing online at Rattle.com.

Jimmy Pappas was the winner, but this year’s voting was as evenly divided as ever—each of the remaining poems received 6–12% of the vote, and all of the finalists had their own enthusiastic supporters. As always, it was an interesting and informative experience reading the commentary. To provide a taste of that, here is a small sample of what our subscribers said about the other finalists:
 

On Barbara Lydecker Crane’s “Love Refrains”:

I love the form of the ghazal, and Barbara has done an excellent job writing within the form, but in a very natural, unconstrained way. The voice is consistent throughout and yet what it says does not get tiresome or redundant; each couplet builds on the previous one in a very organic way.
—Laszlo Slomovits

Love comes in all shapes and forms. This is so interesting for one can see the left hand with a lock of hair and the right hand with the brush, a slight tug maybe, then a lesson on love speaks with out words. It’s active and visual.
—Ieno Jerome

 

On Kayla Czaga’s “Girl Like”:

I think what appeals to me most is the way the poem embraces both the self and the other—at once, it turns out, when you get to the last line and its turn on “a girl like you.” So the poem is both autobiographical and universal (even for boys, I think!), and it seems to me, with its zinging lines and insistence on honesty, a quintessentially Rattle poem. Kayla Czaga made me see what it’s like to come of age now. The same as it was for me, decades ago, and then not. I love it for showing me the not part so vividly.
—Lynne Knight

The speaker in the poem portrays the cruelty of admonitions masquerading as wisdom, and the deepening of despair that scoldings must engender. This is the quintessential failed pep talk. It is filled with satire, tragedy, pain, anger, and loss. What’s not to love?
—Bruce Bartman

 

On Emari DiGiorgio’s “When You Are the Brownest White Girl”:

We live in a world where the skin color of a person is different than the next person, yet the perception who we are as humans hiding under a “brown” or “white” skin is no different one from the other. With the simplest language, Emari captures the poetic essence that no matter what color of skin, “brown” or “white,” or in between, we are human. Anyone disputing that assertion, Emari is ready to fight and defend her right to be human.
—Vincenzo Costa

I found myself reading it aloud to my wife and entering into a rich discussion of the various ways we each have been discriminated against because we were too much this, not enough that … and we all have felt that way at some time or other.
—Frank Beltrano

 

On Rhina P. Espaillat’s “How Tiresome”:

I love poetry that speaks to the universal struggles we will all encounter in our lives. To express this connection we all share in fewer words requires real poetic talent. To deliver a message with precise, unfamiliar language in such a poignant manner is the mark of a great poet. This poem leaves all the others way behind.
—Evelyn Ann Romano

How illuminating and thoroughly human, a less chatty and more grounded rendering of the theme than found in a poem such as Plath’s “All the Dead Dears.” Not to mention it is flawless sonnet composition replete with irony and deft use of symbol to evoke the resentment of the living toward the departed, the sense of abandonment and growing isolation. An early stanza break tempts one to believe the volta occurs early, but the real turn is buried near the end of line 9 where resentment and alienation give way to something less than serenity but unmistakably accepting, an almost intolerable willingness to re-engage through the freshly living, to risk all. A great sonnet that could be called definitive.
—David Parsley

 

On Troy Jollimore’s “Upgrades”:

All the finalists were strong but I appreciated the honesty and humor/irony conveyed by the narrator’s understated, self-effacing account of a series of evolving desires and/or downgraded personal expectations as he comes to terms with mortality, existential violent threats that pervade the current geopolitical climate, and “upgraded” impersonal technological innovation that will supplant nature and undoubtedly lead to no consensus. At the end are we back at the beginning, more therapy to help us accept our own downgrades, if we survive the upgrades that long? It begins as if it’s a man’s poem but it speaks to everyone by its conclusion.
—Tripp Dean

Grave concerns voiced with ironic humor illustrate fundamental absurdity without diminishment. The reader is free to newly associate and regain perspective. This is poetic medicine.
—Tuesday McCormick-Wooke

 

On Nancy Kangas’s “I Like Her”:

I liked the surprising approach of the poem’s speaker who did not need to be liked but was willing to express how desire can overcome acceptable pleasantries. It was a bit creepy, but I could also relate to it!
—Cath Nichols

I like it a lot because it takes me inside someone’s—OK, a guy’s—head in a way that captures how the brain—OK, my brain, I guess, or The Guy brain—processes things: part interior monologue and part associative ramble that meshes how a person’s interior thought patterns and language can interweave with images that reveal those thoughts (and one element of human nature) in surprising ways. So even though it may reveal more than a guy would like about how guys often think, I like “I Like Her” and think it should win the Reader’s Choice Award. ‘Nuff said.
—Steve Abbott

 

Ron Koertge’s “Two Week with Pay”:

I loved the way the rhymes sometimes dart out at you, sometimes hide behind the sentence‎ as it rushes by on its way to its inevitable end.
—Amy Percy

The poet paints a scene that goes from relative tranquility to horror at the speed of light. We poetry teachers often describe how a great poem should surprise, but we forget to describe at what incredible speed that surprise should come. Something else is going on in this poem, which I love. The horror described is commonplace, and that fact helps portray the adult travelers in the narrative as overreactive dim wits. This truth feels right and liberating at the same time.
—Alejandro Escudé

 

On Kirk Schlueter’s “Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body”:

This image of a nine-year-old lashed to a plow is powerful and unforgettable, and the poet gracefully transitions into the impact this burden had on future generations, including himself.
—Margaret DeRitter

Kirk’s poem does for me what I read poetry for (and what I go for when I try to write it): it connects me to feelings and emotions in a physical way (literally, in my body). In this sense, reading poetry can be more impactful than therapy, as it has a chance to reconnect head and body and make a person whole again. After a page and a half of exquisitely executed setup, Kirk’s poem started to dig its hooks into me about the time he got to the line “face is a mask you never take off, // and only men broken on the earth’s dark axis / let their trials conquer them?” and it kept me fully attached until the final line.
—David de Young

 

Alison Townsend’s “The Beautiful Particulars”:

I have read it several times, and a revelation and connection occurs each time. The picture comes clearer, and the pull of familiarity to ancient dead cats, and mothers lost very early in life is heartbeat and tear- eyed strong, and everything she says shines with the Light we all hope to see at the end. There is cleverness, too, this is a primer about how a poem can happen, so suddenly forming, poring out of your imagination, senses and memory, while you find yourself bereft of paper, and you tell yourself to hang onto to this thin thread which is about to turn into liquid ink blood. I love the way she included the whole process that can happen, and DID work the word “synchronicity” into the poem. There is a lot going on in this busy, informative, beautiful homage to memory, poetry, creating, love and loss and light.
—Mary Ericksen

“I don’t want to write about sadness / or try to fit the world ‘synchronicity’ / into a poem,” wrote Townsend: and sure enough she crafted an auditory/visual landscape that transcended sadness, each line’s rhythm contributing a brushstroke to the audiovisual scene. The poem jingled, gently, in the fringes of memory long after the reading of it finished. Somehow, it was what we so often try but not often achieve: an experience, one that is greater in dimension and magnitude than the sum of its parts. You were whirled away into the reality of the poem until the paint in the museum you never visited somehow smelled of some familiar home.
—Yuliya Nesterova