The 2019 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize — our 7th annual poetry contest — exceeded all expectations, with 1200 entries, and over 2,000 individual poems. All poems were read “blind” with all identifying information deleted. Three winners and six finalists were selected, and their poems have been published in Cultural Weekly.
This is the list of the semifinalist poets with the countries they live in. Congratulations, semifinalists!
Esar Aadil – USA
Trenna Ahlstrom – USA
Sandra Anfang – USA
Bartholomew Barker – USA
Charles Becker – USA
Nina Bennett – USA
Roy Bentley – USA
F. J. Bergmann – USA
Tressa Berman – USA
Cindy Bousquet Harris – USA
Constance Brewer – USA
Mandy Brown – USA
Mary Buchinger – USA
Mackenzie Bush – USA
Rebecca Cady – USA
Lauren Camp – USA
Nancy Canyon – USA
Alan Catlin – USA
Ben Chapman – GBR
Agathe Chave-Lucas – FRA
Lisa Cheby – USA
Lauren Auren Clarke – GBR
Rhonda Collis – CAN
Jessica Covil – USA
Dan Curley – USA
Amy DeBellis – USA
Steve Denehan – IRL
Meg Eden – USA
Alicia Elkort – USA
Sara Elliott – USA
Leija Farr – USA
Debra Franco – USA
Nikolai Garcia – USA
Laura Geall – GBR
Bernadette Geyer – DEU
Ashley Gorman – USA
Rebecca Ruth Gould – GBR
Atar Hadari – GBR
Brooke Harris – USA
Nicole Horowitz – USA
Jason Irwin – USA
Steve Klepetar – USA
Tom Laichas – USA
R.D. Landau – USA
Casey Lawrence – CAN
Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li – CAN
Emily Mack – USA
Jack Mackey – USA
Tamara Madison – USA
Tony Magistrale – USA
Katherine Masters – USA
Leslie McMurtry – GBR
Stephen Mead – USA
Violet Mitchell – USA
Joanne Monte – USA
Lisa-Marguerite Mora – USA
Karin Murray-Bergquist – CAN
Florence Murry – USA
C.L. Nehmer – USA
Susan Neiman – USA
Loretta Oleck – USA
Calvin Olsen – USA
Lee Patton – USA
Frances J. Pearce – USA
Rosalie Sanara Petrouske – USA
Hayley Pisciotti – USA
Samara Powers – USA
Bill Ratner – USA
Ellen Ricks – USA
Alun Robert – GBR
Kim Roberts – USA
Artemisio Romero y Carver – USA
Luke Samra – USA
Manisha Sharma – USA
Beate Sigriddaughter – USA
Danny Earl Simmons – USA
Anupam Sinha – DEU
Elizabeth Spencer Spragins – USA
J. J. Steinfeld – CAN
Melissa Studdard – USA
Abigail Taylor – USA
RK Taylor – USA
Caroline Tien – USA
Bhodi Tims – USA
Wren Tuatha – USA
Melissa Vinnedge – USA
RJ Walker – USA
Christopher Watkins – USA
Anthony Watts – GBR
Ren Weber – USA
Paul Weidknecht – USA
Sarah Ann Winn – USA
Cindy Xin – USA
Ian Yemm – GBR
Mantz Yorke – GBR
Jonathan Yungkans – USA
Verna Zafra-Kasala – USA
Kerstin Zilm – USA
Photo of Jack Grapes by Alexis Rhone Fancher.