June 2, 2007: Ahsahta Press is delighted to announce that Rusty Morrison of Richmond, California, has been selected as winner of the $1500 Sawtooth Poetry Prize by judge Peter Gizzi, author of Some Values of Landscape and Weather (Wesleyan). Her manuscript of poems, to be released in January 2008, is titled the true keeps calm biding its story. Runner-up for the prize was Brenda Iijima of Brooklyn, New York, with If Not Metamorphic, which will also receive publication by Ahsahta Press.
Morrison is author of the 2004 collection Whethering, published by the Center for Literary Publishing and distributed by University Press of Colorado. She is co-publisher of Omnidawn Press. An earlier version of the true keeps calm biding its story received the prestigious Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, given for a manuscript in progress.
The press received 600 entries for this year’s competition. “Each year the quality of the entries gets better,” Janet Holmes, director of the press, said. “That makes the decisions that much more difficult.”
An undergraduate intern logged all the manuscripts submitted to the contest and assigned each a number, filing away all identifying materials. At least two of the graduate students in Holmes’s MFA course in small press publishing read each manuscript before passing it on to Holmes, who also read it. Of the 600, 43 became semifinalists. “We go through a winnowing process in the class,” Holmes said, “in which each student champions manuscripts they’ve been impressed with. After we narrowed it down to 43, the class—Ahsahta’s editorial board for this year—each read all 43 manuscripts, and we decided how many would be forwarded to the final judge.” This year, 22 were forwarded to Peter Gizzi. A list of finalists and semifinalists follows.
“It’s a terrific learning process for the graduate students,” Holmes said. “They experience first-hand what treatment a manuscript gets when it’s in the hands of a publisher, and they see packages that strike them as either professionally done or hopelessly amateurish. During the winnowing process, they have to clarify their poetic values, listen to and weigh the presentations of their peers, and the end result is that they learn to read manuscripts of poems whose poetics may be radically different from their own.
“That kind of hands-on learning isn’t available through other means during grad school, and most MFA programs don’t have a press with which students can work,” she added.
Next year’s Sawtooth Poetry Prize contest will be held between January 1 and March 1, 2008, and judged by MacArthur-award-winning poet C.D. Wright, author of Deepstep Come Shining, Steal Away: New and Selected Poems, and Cooling Time, all from Copper Canyon Press.
the true keeps calm biding its story marks the sixth winner of the $1500 Sawtooth Poetry Prize at Ahsahta Press. Ahsahta, a name taken from the Mandan word for “Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep,” has produced 80 volumes of poetry since its founding in 1974. The press maintains a website at http://ahsahtapress.boisestate.edu and distributes its books through Small Press Distribution, Berkeley, California.
Finalists
Geri Lynn Baumblatt, Chicago, Illinois, Atlas of a Cul-de-sac
Oni Buchanan, Brighton, Massachusetts, Spring
Adam Clay, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Nodaway River
Joshua Corey, Ithaca, New York, Windlestrae
Donna de la Perriere, Oakland, California, Saint Erasure
Rebecca Morgan Frank, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Everyday Disaster
Anthony Hawley, Lincoln, Nebraska, Autobiography/Oughtabiography
Stephanie Heit, Frankfort, Michigan, Quiet Anatomy
Brenda Iijima, Brooklyn, New York, If Not Metamorphic (runner-up)
Alice Jones, Berkeley, California, Plunge
Jim Klein, Rutherford, New Jersey, I Didn’t Know if I Was Afoot or on Horseback
Rusty Morrison, Richmond, California, the true keeps calm biding its story (winner)
Danielle Pafunda, Shelburne, New Hampshire, Iatrogenic: Their Testimonies
Karin Randolph, Brooklyn, New York, Blitz
Richard A. Reid, Brooklyn, New York, to be hung from the ceiling by strings of varying length
Evelyn Reilly, Hillsdale, New York, Reverse Landscapes
Andrea Rexilius, Denver, Colorado, A HEM
Christopher Schmidt, Brooklyn, New York, The Next in Line
Brandon Shimoda, Missoula, Montana, O Bon
Michael Slosek, Chicago, Illinois, Artificial Origins
Ashley VanDoorn, Lawrenceville, Georgia, Devices
G.C. Waldrep, Gambier, Ohio, Archicembalo
Semi-Finalists
Angus Bennett, Austin, Texas, Stomachion
Jessica Bozek, Beverly, Massachusetts, The Bodyfeel Lexicon
Julie Carr, Denver, Colorado, I, Minimus
Jennifer Denrow, Saint Louis, Missouri, A Knee for a Life
Shira Dentz, Salt Lake City, Utah, Diagram of a Voice
Janet Kaplan, Brooklyn, New York, Dreamlife of a Philanthropist
Jennifer MacKenzie, Portland, Oregon, With Its Brightness
Dora Malech, Bethesda, Maryland, Say So
Sarah Mangold, Seattle, Washington, Everything About How
Malinda Markham, Tokyo, Japan, Who Came Running
Susan McCabe, Santa Monica, California, Descartes’ Nightmare
Mary Molinary, Memphis, Tennessee, Feast of Anonymous
L.J. Moore, San Francisco, California, F-STEIN
Rusty Morrison, Richmond, California, Beyond the Chainlink
Kristin Naca, Seattle, Washington, Bird Eating Bird
Christopher Rizzo, Albany, New York, 33 Days in the Month of Kid
Donna Stonecipher, Seattle, Washington, The Cosmopolitan
Allison Titus, Richmond, Virginia, Barter, Fasten
Leila Wilson, Chicago, Illinois, The Hundred Grasses
Terence Winch, Silver Spring, Maryland, Lift from Below
Lynn Xu, Brooklyn, New York, For an Expedient Return to Wilderness
July 7, 2006: Boise State University’s Ahsahta Press Announces Subscription Program for 2006-2007 Season Titles