Rattle is proud to announce the winners of the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize:

1st Prize – $10,000

 

“Equilibrium”
Tiana Clark
Brentwood, TN

__________

Finalists – $200

 

“Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled With Shrieks”
Christopher Citro
Liverpool, NY

“Work in Progress”
Rhina P. Espaillat
Newburyport, MA

“The Glance”
Jennifer Givhan
Albuquerque, NM

“Morning at the Welfare Office”
Valentina Gnup
Oakland, CA

“Old Age Requires the Greatest Courage”
Red Hawk
Monticello, AR

“More Than This”
David Kirby
Tallahassee, FL

“Yesterday”
Travis Mossotti
St. Louis, MO

“Sugar Babe”
Cherise A. Pollard
West Chester, PA

“Deus ex Machina”
Melissa King Rogers
Decatur, GA

“Elegy”
Patricia Smith
Howell, NJ

 

These eleven poems will be published in issue #50 of Rattle this December. Each of the finalists are also eligible for the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by entrant and subscriber vote (the voting period is December 1, 2015 – February 15, 2016).

Another nine 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: George Bilgere, Christopher Citro, Taylor Collier, Jennifer Givhan, Chris Green, M, S.H. Lohmann, Christine Poreba, and Laura Read.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition, which would not have been a success without your diverse and inspiring poems. We received a record 4,022 entries and roughly 15,000 poems, and it was an honor to read each of them.