Rattle Poetry Prize

Conversation with
Robin Coste Lewis

The Winter 2019 issue of Rattle is fresh out of the oven, and we can’t wait for you to dig in to this diverse selection of poetry—from Grace Bauer’s “Unspeakable Elegy,” an understatedly powerful portrait of grief, to Jasmin Roberts’ “Self-Selection for Preservation,” an unflinching depiction of a grandmother who “lived her entire childhood in a segregated south.” We’ve got sharp-as-a-tack formal poems, poems whose titles are poems in themselves (“When Your Mother Asks You If You’re Seeing Anyone and No Longer Means a Therapist”), poems with insights so searingly true you find yourself holding your breath for a moment (“He wants to know what it’s like to be a woman / so I say, we all got touched in ways we didn’t want.” —Jeanmarie Evelly).

In addition to all that, we’re proud to present the results of the 2019 Rattle Poetry Prize, including a sonnet based on a painting by Alice Neel, an ode to a deported uncle, and many others, all of which beg to be read again and again. And then, of course, there’s our 2019 winner, “Stroke” by Matthew Dickman, a poem so good it feels more like an experience than words on a page.

Last but not least, Alan Fox sits down with Robin Coste Lewis for a conversation that is as illuminating as it is varied, touching on fame and public life, the evolution of language, Sanskrit, mythology, and much, much more. You won’t want to miss it.

 

	Open Poetry
	Amy Alvarez	When You Ask Why My Arms Are Empty
	Chaun Ballard	If You Were to Ask Me the State of My Country …
	Wendy Barker	In the Endoscopy Center
	Grace Bauer	Unspeakable Elegy
	Jefferson Carter	Life Partner
	Jeanmarie Evelly	History of a Body
	Alan C. Fox	Wherefore Art Thou?
	Michele Graaff	Channel 37
	Albert Katz	On Hitting 70
	Sam Killmeyer	Play like a Boy
	Cindy King	When Your Mother Asks if You’re Seeing Anyone …
	Danusha Laméris	Twin Strangers
	Jenna Lyles	The White Man’s Wife Will Bear Him Triplets
	Clint Margrave	When Death Travels
	Stephen Morrow	Neighbors
	Tyler Mortensen-Hayes	Autumn Elegy
	Arielle Moss	Damn, You’re Tiny
	Anna Newman	Gurney Season
	James Ragan	Taming the Sloth
		The Bitters at Henley
	Jasmin Roberts	Self-Selection for Preservation
	Denzel Scott	Seven People Dancing
	Tim Skeen	That Other While Ago
	Michael T. Young	The One in Power
	Poetry Prize Winner
	Matthew Dickman	Stroke
	Finalists
	Kathleen Balma	Punch Line
	Susan Browne	Bonanza
	Barbara Lydecker Crane	Mother and Child
	Maya Tevet Dayan	Foreign-ness
	Daniel Arias Gómez	Cathedrals: Ode to a Deported Uncle
	Red Hawk	The Never-Ending Serial
	Sue Howell	Gender Studies
	Kimberly Kemler	From Oblivious Waters
	James Davis May	Red in Tooth and Claw
	Gabrielle Otero	Self-Portrait, Despite What They Say
	Conversation
	Robin Coste Lewis (web)
	Cover Art
	Polly Alice (web)