Poetry Award -- Celebrate with me

[LewEllyn Hallett]

One of my poems won the 2008 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize from the Southern California Review and was published in that journal this past fall. Publishing victories are rare in the poetry business so I wanted to share the joy.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASELewEllyn Hallett Wins 2008 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize The 20th annual contest awards $1,000 for “Little Bird,” which will be published in Southern California Review in fall 2008Los Angeles—July 17, 2008—LewEllyn Hallett has won the 2008 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize. Sponsored annually for more than 20 years by Southern California Review (SCR), the prize awards $1,000 to the winning poet. Hallett’s poem “Little Bird” will also be published in SCR’s fall 2008 issue.Poet Christopher Buckley, who judged the competition, admired “Little Bird’s” “essential lyric distillation of image and emotion in a supremely accessible music—a cherishing of life and celebration of meaning.”Marilyn Annucci has won the second prize worth $200 for her poem “The Longer My Dog Stops, the More I Am Allowed to Watch,” and Kelly Madigan Erlandson has been awarded the third prize worth $100 for “Phosphorescence.”LewEllyn Hallett was raised in Atlanta, Ga., and after sojourning in almost a dozen states, settled in New Hampshire. She received her degree in creative writing from the University of New Mexico and has earned a living as a writer of advertising copy, magazine and newspaper articles, public relations and business materials. She has also worked as a minister and nonprofit administrator, including program director for New Hampshire Writers’ Project.Hallett currently volunteers on the Project’s program committee and on the advisory board for New Hampshire Poetry Out Loud, writes freelance articles and works for New Hampshire Public Radio as assistant to the president. She lives in Bow, N.H., with her husband and two teenaged daughters and has not pursued publication of her poetry and fiction until now.Little Birdfor my daughter Lily at 13held finches in my hand, weightless,twig of leg between thumb and forefingeralmost too fine for bandingI felt the peck of a pea-sized heart against my palmshudder of struggle, then stillnesshesitation at release, then whipping of wingsfury of escape from perch to wirepuff of breath, rapid pumping of a scant teaspoon of bloodconsuming energy in a vessel without substanceLily, little bird,brilliant fire burns between her white templesa heart too huge to bindflutters in the narrow cage of her ribsthe wings of her shoulders and delicate wristencircled by the band of my fingersfly relentlessly from task to taskmagnitude of life and purpose in a tiny frameGod has chosen the weak things to confound the mighty© 2006 LewEllyn HallettAbout the Ann Stanford Poetry PrizeAnn Stanford (1916-1987)—a poet, editor, translator, scholar, and educator—was born in La Habra, Calif. Aside from attending Stanford as an undergraduate, she lived in Southern California her whole life. She earned two master’s degrees in journalism and Englisdoctorate in English from the University of California at Los Angeles.She taught at California State University (CSU), Northridge, for 25 years and in 1974 was the first woman named Outstanding Professor of the Year in the CSU system.Stanford’s publications include poetry collections The Weathercock (1966), The Descent (1970), In Mediterranean Air (1977), and the critical study Anne Bradstreet: The Worldly Puritan. She also edited the anthology The Women Poets in English. Her collected poems, Holding Our Own, edited by David Trinidad and Maxine Scates, was published in 2001.She received numerous awards for her poetry, including the Shelley Memorial Award, the DiCastagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Award in Literature from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.Southern California Review has awarded the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize annually for more than 20 years. The deadline for the 2009 contest is December 31, 2008. Entry forms and more information can be found at www.usc.edu/scr.About Southern California ReviewSouthern California Review (SCR) is the student-run biannual literary journal of the Master of Professional Writing (MPW) Program at the University of Southern California (USC). Formerly known as the Southern California Anthology, it has been publishing fiction and poetry since1982 and now also accepts submissions of creative nonfiction, plays and screenplays. Printed every October and April with original cover artwork, every issue contains new, emerging and established authors.More information on submissions, contests and subscriptions can be found at www.usc.edu/scr.About the Master of Professional Writing Program USC's MPW Program offers a multi-genre curriculum with classes in fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, TV writing, playwriting and poetry.The faculty includes esteemed writer-practitioners, and the emphasis is on preparing writers for successful careers in publishing, film, television and technical writing as well as teaching. USC's proximity to the cultural and entertainment resources of Los Angeles provides a rich environment for writers. More information and online applications can be found at www.usc.edu/mpw.###

[LewEllyn Hallett]

Thanks, John! I kind of forgot about this blog myself. I appreciate your interest. And I got your friend request-- surely we were friends on this site already?! Oh well, we're good now.

[John Richeson]

Not sure how I missed this blog LewEllyn.

LewEllyn Hallett has won the 2008 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize. Sponsored annually for more than 20 years by Southern California Review (SCR), the prize awards $1,000 to the winning poet. Hallett’s poem “Little Bird” will also be published in SCR’s fall 2008 issue.

Poet Christopher Buckley, who judged the competition, admired “Little Bird’s” “essential lyric distillation of image and emotion in a supremely accessible music—a cherishing of life and celebration of meaning.”

Congratulations. That's cool. My wife Hope likes poetry and is pretty good at it, unlike me.

[Lonnell Johnson]

LewEllyn,

Kudos! What an exquisite poem. You certainly captured "the essence of youth in its purest stage." Wonderful imagery. Certainly the award you received is well deserved. Have you thought of publishing some of your poetry and/or prose? Through Ambassador Press, I have published a collection of my own poetry as well as collections by three other poets. Check out my website: http://www.ambassadorpressllc.com.

Congratulations, again.

Lonnell

[Karen (Hemmalin) McGrath]

Very nice, LewEllyn. Congratulations! :)