We’re pleased to announce the following $10,000 Rattle Poetry Prize winner:

“Turbulence”
Dave Harris
La Jolla, CA

Dave Harris is a poet and playwright from West Philly. He is a Cave Canem Fellow, a Callaloo Fellow, and has had his essays and poetry featured in Huffington Post, Upworthy, Button Poetry, BOAAT Press, Rattle, Muzzle, Up The Staircase Quarterly (nominated “Best of the Net”) and Winter Tangerine among others. His plays have been featured across the country, and he is a two-time finalist for the O’Neill Theater Conference, and a semi-finalist for The Relentless Award from The American Playwriting Foundation. Dave currently lives in San Diego where he is working towards his MFA in Playwriting. (web)

Finalists:

Note: After subscriber vote, Katie Bickham was selected as winner of the Readers’ Choice Award. For more information and the full results, click here.

“The Blades”
Katie Bickham
Shreveport, LA

“Long Division”
Destiny Birdsong
Nashville, TN

“Lonely, Lovely”
Debra Bishop
Terre Haute, IN

“You Don’t Look Like Someone”
McKenzie Chinn
Chicago, IL

“Soccer Dad”
Steve Henn
Warsaw, IN

“In Charlottesville After Charlottesville”
Courtney Kampa
Menlo Park, CA

“Will Exult Over You With Loud Singing”
Michael Lavers
Provo, UT

“To the Insurance Agent Who, in Denying Coverage, Explained that Everything Happens for a Reason”
Darren Morris
Richmond, VA

“The Dead Weight of Dogs”
Loueva Smith
Porter, TX

“The Way”
Mike White
Salt Lake City, UT

These eleven poems were published in issue #62 of Rattle. Each of the Finalists were also eligible for the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, selected by subscriber vote.

A record 16 additional poems were selected for standard publication, and offered a space in the open section of a future issue. These poets have been notified individually about details, but they are: Amy Alvarez, Chris Anderson, Heather Bell, Catherine Bresner, Susan Browne, Jeeae Chang, Kim Dower, Matt Farrell, Stephanie Hart, Stephen Kampa, David Kirby, Lania Knight, Derek Otsuji, Meghann Plunkett, Catherine Pond, and Craig Van Rooyen.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition, which would not have been a success without your diverse and inspiring poems. This felt like the strongest year of entries by a wide margin, and we really enjoyed the opportunity to read. We received 3,549 entries and over 14,000 poems, and it was an honor to read each of them.