2021 Fischer/Cantor Prize Winning Poems
(Click each poem title to see the poem.)
Fischer Prize Winner
Ja’net Danielo for “We Thank the Veteran for His Service,” originally published in Newtown Literary (Spring/Summer 2020)
Ja’net Danielo is the author of The Song of Our Disappearing, a winner of the Paper Nautilus 2020 Debut Series Chapbook Contest. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Mid-American Review, Radar Poetry, The Ilanot Review, DIALOGIST, Gulf Stream, Frontier Poetry, and 2River View, among other journals. Originally from Queens, NY, she teaches at Cerritos College and lives in Long Beach, CA with her husband and her dog. You can find her at www.jdanielo.com.
Fischer Prize Finalists
Janet Ruth for “Sacred Datura“
Janet Ruth is a New Mexico ornithologist. Her writing focuses on connections to the natural world. She has recent poems in Tulip Tree Review, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Ocotillo Review, Sin Fronteras, Ekphrastic Review, and anthologies including Moving Images: Poetry Inspired by Film (Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications, 2021), and New Mexico Remembers 9/11 (Artemesia Publishing, 2020). Her book, Feathered Dreams: celebrating birds in poems, stories & images (Mercury HeartLink, 2018) was a Finalist for the 2018 NM/AZ Book Awards. Website.
Mitchell Untch for “Eden“
I am an emerging writer. Partial publications include Beloit Poetry Journal; Poet Lore; North American Review; Confrontation; Nimrod Intl; Natural Bridge; Owen Wister; Solo Novo; Knockout: Baltimore Review; Lake Effect; The Catamaran Reader; Grey Sparrow; Illuminations; Tusculum Review; The Tampa Review ; Mudfish; Chiron Review; Massachusetts Review, srpr; Paris American; Moth, Fjords, among others.
Bianca Darby-Matteoda for “bird cry“
Originally from Bucks County Pennsylvania, Bianca Darby-Matteoda now lives between Los Angeles and Telluride. She recently completed her MFA in poetry at NYU after a decade in the festival and events industry.
Stephanie Bailey for “The Patron Saint of Letting Go“
Stephanie Bailey has been a writer since was a little girl. She loves Ray Bradbury, weird YA fiction, and writing poetry in her notes app in the backseat of Uber rides. She wrote a series of plays about the comedic pitfalls of romance in a small town that was performed by a cast in Taos, New Mexico, and her work has been featured on livetaos.com
Partridge Boswell for “Pop a Wheelie“
Partridge Boswell is the author of Some Far Country (Grolier Poetry Prize). His poems and essays have recently surfaced in Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, Salmagundi, The American Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, december, Plume, Hotel Amerika, Prairie Schooner and The Moth. Co-founder of Bookstock Literary Festival, he troubadours widely with the poetry/music group Los Lorcas, whose debut release Last Night in America (2021) is available on Thunder Ridge Records.
Cantor Prize Winner
Madison Gill for ‘Urraca“
Madison Gill (she/her) is a poet from western Colorado. An alumni of Colorado State University-Pueblo, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in print and online with such publications as Sledgehammer Literary Journal, Anti Heroin Chic, Tiny Spoon, and Tempered Steel among others. She has also performed and placed in literary events and university-level conferences around Colorado. She and her loving partner are currently building a tiny home at the foot of the San Juan mountains.
