2021 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest Winners and Finalists
First ($500)
Bittersweet—Marianna Boncek. Woodstock, NY
Second ($400)
GRANDMA STILL REMEMBERS MY MOTHER WELL—Marija Dejanovic, Zagreb, Croatia/Larissa, Greece
Third ($300) tie
Harbour—Virginia Boudreau, Nova Scotia, Canada
Sacrilege—Timi Sanni, Lagos, Nigeria
Fifth ($175)
A Thing Not Kept—Sarah McCartt-Jackson, Kentucky
Sixth ($150)
ADAM—Marlene M. Tartaglione, NY, NY
Editor’s Choice ($125)
Daydream—Cassandra IsFree, Norfolk, Virginia
Honorable Mentions (11 @$100)
- Long Walk to Nowhere—Obed Ebenezer. S, Kerala, India
- Aspens—Richard Foerster, Eliot, Maine
- Your Brain: A Landscape—Andra Vltavin, Portland, Oregon
- Moses at the Bridge—Emilio Iasiello, Arlington, Virginia
- Whish—Jackie Craven—Schenectady, NY
- In which the cardiologist discovers, from electrocardiography, the aetiology of my heart malfunction— Chisom Okafor, Idaw River, Enugu State, Nigeria
- blowing smoke on the wood—Tatiana Dolgushina, Unalaska, Alaska
- The Boy Achilles—Daniel Gorman, Albany, NY
- And Does the Earth Laugh? —Cameron Edwards, Fayetteville, North Carolina
- How to Hear the Voices—EJ Bowman, Orange County, California
- The Customs of Grief—Karen Craigo, Springfield, Missouri
Other Finalists
- Vermeer in Boston—Denise O”Hagan, Sydney, Australia
- Bipolar—Ernest Ogunyemi—Nigeria
- Mirror—Amanda Sommers, Ardsley, NY
- AFTERNOON IN THE WOODS—Despy Boutis, Houston, Texas
- HIRAETH (AN ODE TO A CITY) —Reena R., Kerala, India
- The Portrait of God as an Artist—Ebuka Evans, Mkpor, Anambra State, Nigeria
- The Night Before Haying—Mary Cuffe Perez, Galway, NY
- sunday in oakland—Daniel B. Summerhill, Marina, California (Publication on hold at the request of the poet)
- Mama was once a fairy—Madison Watai, Alberta, Canada
- St. Paul’s Churchyard—Tara A. Elliott, Eastern Shore, Maryland
- The Audacity of Sacrifice—Anointing Obuh, Nigeria
- Ding. Ding. Ding. — Arianna Culwell, Fresno, California
- Runaway—Jennifer Battisti, Las Vegas, Nevada
- A Sad Dreadful Fact—Luis Pabon, Albany, NY
- I am—Lorenda Mable, The Bronx, NY
- Highland Park, East New York—Ayendy Bonifacio, Toledo, Ohio
- Solutions—Cheryl A. Rice, Kingston, NY
- THE MARK—Pat Ashinze, Ilorin, Nigeria
- The Night Was White—Glenn Ingersoll, Berkeley, California
- a hypothetical record of existence in a geography of injustice, or not—Praise Osawaru, Nigeria
- Processions—Ginger K. Hintz, Oakland, California
- Silky Oak—Vanessa Page, Cashmere, Queensland, Australia
- SELF-PORTRAIT AS A STUDIO GHIBLI SOUNDTRACK—Grace Song, Great Neck, NY
- my roommate says i will age without a lover—Michael Emmanuel, Lagos, Nigeria