I am beyond excited to announce that my poetry manuscript Migrations & Other Exiles has won the IDAHO PRIZE FOR POETRY 2022. Thank you so much to Lost Horse Press and to the judge Dzvinia Orlowsky for selecting my work, and congratulations to all the finalists!
This manuscript was many years in the making, and I am thrilled to see it published by a press I deeply admire. More info to come!
Comments about MIGRATIONS & OTHER EXILES by Dzvinia Orlowsky:
"With a Bachelardian dreaminess and a poetic language that is both sensuous and incisive, MIGRATIONS & OTHER EXILES questions the contradictory nature of human love. Right from the opening poem, “Promise,” the speaker attempts to shape an unidentified other into a graceful swan-like survivor only to renege: “I carved her neck long/so that when the rains came /she might hold it above /water. You will not drown,/ I promised her. But then her/ mouth and eyes filled and I/ let them. What begins with hope, complex and lucent—a flight of spirit—often ends with the rarity or inability to fly: “Remember that one time/ we flew? Like we were birds/ with thrift-store wings.” Other times, it’s the literal, hard-hitting world of self-harming burns and gunshots that violate the boundaries of self. Precise and elegant, redemptive in its musicality and stunning imagery, MIGRATIONS & OTHER EXILES is a remarkable, stand-out, collection."
