After Frida Kahlo’s Sin Esperanza & the Crohn’s Diagnosis
“wheeled in on a bed three times her size. / A bouquet of rotting meats, / organs, & calaveras ensconced / between her lips.”
Contest Winner
Sauce on the Side
By Randy James
“I come blessed like / cocolon, Caesars fresh out the barber y platos de arroz / con pollo from corner bodegas. I am part flamingo, / part Black Howler.”
Mexican Standard About a Desert
“What goddess of war / Came to me as a boy; dumb, / Summer-sweat wet child?”
Winners and Finalists of the 2019 Emerging Poet Prize!
Guest judge Kim Addonizio had a difficult time choosing from our exceptional finalists, all read blind, but in the end, she selected Cassandra J. Bruner to take the $3000 prize. Congratulations to Cassandra, and to all of our winners and finalists!
Our 2020 Second Book Fellow is Caits Meissner
We are honored to announce that Caits Meissner has been selected as the 2020 Second Book Fellow for Palette Poetry!
The Great Cosmic Hum
“the hum you could never / obliterate, molecules buzzing, hum of 87 floors of refrigerators cooling, / hum that keeps the building in the sky”
House of Prayer
“I praise once again, I symmetry / like the wings of a migrating bird, I repeat alhamdulillah / and rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat, like the rokrok / of an egret.”
BRAIN HEMORRHAGE, EARLY FALL
By Madhur Anand
“Found a dead bird on the rented back porch on Rice Lake. / Found it. Not encountered it. More like: glad we did not / not see it.”
Winners and Finalists of the Palette Poetry Prize!
Guest judge Edward Hirsch had a difficult time choosing from our exceptional finalists, but in the end, he chose Shelley Stenhouse to take the $4000 prize. Congratulations to Shelley, and to all of our winners and finalists!