Perigee Authors Nominated for Pushcart Prizes

Dear Perigee Editors:

I am pleased to announce that our Board of Contributing Editors for the PUSHCART PRIZE: BEST OF THE SMALL PRESSES (33rd Edition), has nominated the works listed below for inclusion in PPXXXIII to be published in November. If any of these titles is picked for reprint in PPXXXIII, you will hear from us by early May. Thank you for helping us gather this annual celebration of literary presses as we begin our 33rd year.

Bill Henderson, Publisher.

Authors & Works Nominated:

James Brown, "Some Kind of Animal," Vol 5, Issue II (Issue 18)
Paul Casey, "Wrong Wine," Vol 5, Issue II (Issue 18)
Kevin P Keating, "The Black Death of Gentile da Foligno," Vol 5, Issue II (Issue 18)
David R Poe, "My Stunning Wife, Studs," Vol 5, Issue II (Issue 18)

All from one issue. Congratulations to all.

2007 Poetry Contest Winners Announced!

Perigee is pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions in our recent 2007 Poetry Contest.

All those who participated have our thanks. Writing poetry is not easy. Offering up that poetry to be judged against other poems and poets deserves special recognition. That is why we are thankful for each and every submission we received in last year's competition.

Even if your name does not appear in the list below, you have our thanks for your effort, and our encouragement to continue battling the white of the blank page.

We would also like to acknowledge the generous and selfless contributions of poet Joseph Millar, who served as our guest judge for this competition. His poetic clarity and thoughtful deliberation helped make a difficult task manageable, and ensured the best poems garnered the recognition they deserve. Joe, you have our thanks.


The Winners of Perigee's 2007 Poetry Contest:
1st Place: Karen Wallisky, for "Displacement"
2nd Place: Gayla Chaney, for "Stranded Motorist"
3rd Place: Shurooq Amin Ahmed, for "The Other Wife"

Honorable Mentions:
Shurooq Amin Ahmed, for "Mud Roses"
Mimi Moriarty, for "A Poet Who Cannot Support Himself Takes a Job Pouring Cement"


The winning poems will be published in our 5th Anniversary Issue, April 15th, 2008. We congratulate each of the winners, who can expect to be contacted by Perigee with details on collecting their winnings shortly.

With Thanks,

The Editors

Harry Griswold Pens New Collection of Poems

Buy book from publisher

Harry Griswold’s Camera Obscura is a quiet collection filled with humorous and sometimes savage ironies and the quirks that only the best poets reveal: wisdom, insight, artistic integrity, an ability to stir:

“…cockles and swirls, damp indentations,
rising shafts of lubricous energy,
some grassy places
people still run their bare feet through.”

These poems are gripping. They do what brilliant poems should do — make you close your eyes and smile with understanding and gratitude.
- Duff Brenna, author of Waking in Wisconsin, poetry collection published by Borealis Press, 1984

Harry Griswold is the kind of poet you would like to sit down with. He’s weaving stories and he knows just how much to show, how much to tell. You won’t find a false step or easy theatrics. Camera Obscura is the work of an experienced, astute man, very worthwhile taking in. We need more wisdom in our poetry and Griswold delivers.
—Eloise Klein Healy, author of The Islands Project: Poems For Sappho (Red Hen Press, 2007)

Harry Griswold’s poetry is filled with a multiplicity of voices, characters, and experiences, all offered with a quiet lyricism. There is a tenderness in his way of seeing the events of the world and the people who inhabit it. Whether his character is a young woman who reveals her sense of violation or a child overhearing his mother talking about someone else’s breast cancer, Harry Griswold’s poetry reveals a concern for the world in which we live, and he renders that concern with an observant eye and honest voice.
—Steve McDonald, author of Where There Was No Pattern (Finishing Line Press, 2007)