“Nitza Kosher Pizza,” by Annie Dawid
Nitza Kosher Pizza 1977- 1978 Elbow-deep in warm suds, pressed against the stainless steel sink, I feel my boss’s muscular arms envelop me. “Quit it, Sam.” “Kisses sweet in wine, kisses sweet in wine,” he says, kissing the back of my neck. Or is it “kisses sweet and wine?” “Sam, leave me alone.” His wife, Marie, does the books in one of the booths while I scrub pots and bowls, the remainders of Sam’s private time in the kitchen; no...
“On Hearing the Call to Prayer Over the Marcellus Shale on Easter Morning,” by Marilyn McCabe
How like we are crinoids: lily-like, nervous, as a starfish, many fingered, prying crevice and fissure, regrowing arms with every loss. A cry, a crying, a call out, strange song, predawn trembling: Through the permeable membrane, air metes its punishment: An egg, forgotten, now rotten, its inside resembling something marbled. Things are seldom as hard as they seem. I believe in this, called what you will; and if a prayer can rise me...
Fall 2011 eMessage Winners
AIMEE ANDERSON Printed with permission by Aimee Anderson, copyrighted by Aimee Anderson @ 2011 This, our writing, is not for our to-do-lists. We wake up and write and sleep and write. If we are writers, we do not forget. STEFFI DREWES Printed with permission by Steffi Drewes, copyrighted by Steffi Drewes @ 2011 Lovelorn honeybee repeat after me: blushing builds no bravery to strut is not the same as dirty sea legs nor...
Fall 2011 Orlando Poetry Prize Finalist Excerpts
LAURA DAVENPORT, “IN A NASHVILLE LIQUOR STORE, I REALIZE I DON’T LOVE YOU” Three days after New Year’s, we are buying champagne. I watch you pull from a pocket the cash you made tonight. Enough for a bottle and a six pack, enough to drink ourselves to sleep. We have come from a party where the room unspooled, a girl collapsed on the sofa gripping a fifth of whiskey. Legs flung wide, her skirt rode up around her thighs, exposing...
Orlando Prize Winners & Finalists Spring 2012
Orlando Poetry Prize Winner Megan Alpert, “crafting” Finalists Edith Walden, “Song in Seven Parts” Laura Juliet Wood, “Late Summer Garden” Orlando Creative Nonfiction Prize Winner Flynn Berry, “Surfing” Finalists Daisy Hernandez, “Stories She Tells Us” Adriana Paramo, “Girl in Red Stilettos Getting Drunk in Ashgabat” Orlando Short Fiction Prize Winner Karin Davidson, “The Geography of First Kisses” Finalist Anne Dimock, “Iceland Josh”...
Orlando Prize Winners & Finalists Fall 2012
Orlando Poetry Prize Winner Marilyn McCabe, “On Hearing the Call to Prayer Over the Marcellus Shale on Easter Morning” Finalists Mary-Kim Arnold, “This is for the Sad Girls” Karen Mcpherson, “Bantam Sampling: Prospect Mountain Road” Erin Radcliffe, “Pishing” Orlando Creative Nonfiction Prize Winner Ellen Smith, “The Locust: A Foundational Narrative” Finalists Jennifer Simpson, “After, We Were Birds” Jennifer Bird, “Searching For the...
Orlando Prize Winners & Finalists Spring 2013
After reviewing all entries to the Orlando Prizes contest, we want to commend each and every writer who submitted. There were so many fabulous pieces with so much to say, and so many fresh and innovative ways of communicating your courageous material. We truly wish we could work with each of you to see these pieces come to publication. For now, let us just say, with deepest sincerity, well done, and keep going! Orlando Poetry Prize...
“The Dream” by ire’ne Lara Silva
The Dream is this: a balanced life—a happy, loving partner/family; a long, healthy life; abundant economic resources; a lengthy career filled with accomplishments and awards; acknowledged ‘mastery’ of your chosen art; and a harmoniously serene mind and heart to enjoy it all. In reality, we are more likely fragmented and struggling—always spread too thin, always juggling more priorities than we can handle, always trying to carve out...
“Virginia Woolf and a River,” by Florencia Ramirez
“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write,” wrote Virginia Woolf. She described this as the “great problem.” Thirteen years ago, two women, within a canyon of red stone and brush, each with copies of Virginia Woolf’s book, “A Room of Her Own,” conspired to bring together a community of women writers (a room) and a vision to finance creative expression with literary awards (money). Two years ago, I entered the...
“Beautiful Caves”
Kate Gale asks Gift of Freedom winner Diane Gilliam, “In a world where almost anyone would rather be involved in commerce or consumer culture or interaction with the screen, why poetry? It’s not as active as football, not as immediate as mall shopping, not as intrusive as Facebook. It is ancient and quiet, sitting on the side, waiting. It is contemplative and has no place in our modern culture. Or does it? What is...
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What treasures are secreted in the deepest places, the bathys, and how will we recover their promise?
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