“Colloquy with St. Mary of Egypt,” a finalist for the Wells College Press Chapbook Contest, will appear in Blackbird - February 6, 2016

Congratulations to the J.R. Tappenden, whose chapbook Independent City, won the 2016 Wells Press Chapbook Contest. My own manuscript, Colloquy with St. Mary of Egypt, was a finalist, and I was delighted to read the following from Wells Press:

“Judges’ comments about the manuscript included praise for it as ‘a wonderfully complex and suggestive meditation’ combining elements of the poet’s personal life and study with ‘multi-layered historical story-telling and unusual muse-worship.’ It was also described as both ‘very original’ and ‘fascinating,’ a tour-de-force that the poet ‘pulls off masterfully.’”

In the meantime, Blackbird has picked up the entire poem, a 320 seduction of dessert saint, for a publication in 2016! My thanks to both Wells College Press and Blackbird for believing in the central poem for my forthcoming collection, The Identity Thief.