Linda Cooper, Winner of the Spring 2015 Orlando Poetry Prize
“The longing and painful resurgence of the central figure in this poem is drawn for us through action and image. Every word here is doing important work. … The poet uses her lines masterfully, changing and rearranging my perceptions and expectations, renewing tired language and recharging her poem as she moves it down the page.”
—Camille Dungy, Spring 2015 Orlando Poetry Finalist Judge
Congratulations to Linda Cooper on the selection of her poem, “The New Morrigan” for the Spring 2015 Orlando Poetry Prize! “The New Morrigan” will be published in Issue No. 18 of the Los Angeles Review.
We asked Linda to talk about her poem and to tell us what publication means to her. She replied:
To me, The New Morrigan is a study in empowerment. I had been researching the behavior and activities of crows and, in the process, learned about boldness, ingenuity and communication. Crows became my teachers, a source of inspiration. I hope that, through this poem, they can inspire other women to rise from grief, limitation, and fear toward a new view of their own powerful selves.
Writing poetry is inspirational, fun, and transformative. Publication has been a source of empowerment and a way to communicate something personal to a larger world. Publication is hard, and I have often asked myself if the effort, rejection, and tedium are worth it. In light of this most recent honor, the answer is yes.
Linda Cooper lives in Seattle, Washington, where she teaches middle school Language Arts. She completed her MFA at Eastern Washington University, and her poems have been published in Hayden’s Ferry Review, West Branch, Many Mountains Moving, Willow Springs, Third Coast, Hubbub, Elixir, Diner, Midwest Quarterly Review, Weber Studies, Redactions, The Far Field, Verse Daily, Railtown Almanac and Rock and Sling.
