Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Colin Cheney wins National Poetry Series competition

The National Poetry Series has officially announced the results of the 2009 Open Competition, and the University of Georgia Press is delighted to announce that judge David Wojahn has selected Colin Cheney's manuscript HERE BE MONSTERS for publication by the press in spring 2010.

Cheney, in addition to writing poetry, curating the Chin Music reading series, and teaching expository writing at NYU, builds rooftop gardens and meadows in Brooklyn. He received a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation in 2006. His poems have appeared widely in journals; read a few online from Poetry, Ploughshares, and the Kenyon Review Online.

Other winners of this year's competition are:

Julie Carr, Sarah - Of Fragments and Lines
Chosen by Eileen Myles, to be published by Coffee House Press

Carrie Fountain, Burn Lake
Chosen by Natasha Trethewey, to be published by Penguin Books

Erika Meitner, Ideal Cities
Chosen by Paul Guest, to be published by HarperCollins Publishers

Jena Osman, The Network
Chosen by Prageeta Sharma, to be published by Fence Books


The National Poetry Series was established in 1978 to ensure the publication of five poetry books annually through participating publishers. Publication is funded by the Lannan Foundation, Stephen Graham, Joyce & Seward Johnson Foundation, Glenn & Renee Schaeffer, and the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation.