Janice Farrell Poetry Prize Category
First Prize: $100
Second Prize: $50
Third Prize: $25
Category Details
Three poems per entry. One poem per page. One page poems only. We welcome free verse, blank verse and prose poems. Each year a local poet is invited to guest judge. Past judges have included Indigo Moor, Katherine Harer, Rich Yurman, Patricia Gale, Christopher J. Renz, O.P., David Smith-Ferri, Toby Kaplan, Joyce Jenkins, C. B. Follett, Susan Terris, Janell Moon, Alice Rogoff, Clive Matson, David Alpaugh, Forrest Hamer, Marcia Campbell, Andrena Zawinski, Grace M. Grafton, Adam David Miller, Stewart Florsheim, Marvin R. Hiemstra, Charles and Gail Entrekin, Jeanne Wagner, Erica Goss, Connie Post, Susan Cohen, Dawn McGuire, Robert Eastwood, and Lee Rossi.
About Sponsor
JANICE FARRELL (San Francisco, CA) has a private practice in Spiritual Direction and trains and supervises Spiritual Director interns at Mercy Center Burlingame. She has a degree in Psychology, certification as a Holistic Health Educator Counselor, and has done extensive post grad work in Theology. She invites local poets as annual judges in her eager and full-hearted support of poetry, which she loves deeply.
About the 2020 Judge
INDIGO MOOR (Sacramento, CA), Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sacramento, will have his fourth book of poetry, Everybody’s Jonesin’ for Something, coming out in spring 2021. The book took second place in the University of Nebraska Press’ Backwater Prize. His second book, Through the Stonecutter’s Window, won the Northwestern University Press’ Cave Canem prize. His first and third books, Tap-Root, and In the Room of Thirsts & Hungers, were both part of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Indigo is an adjunct professor at Dominican University and visiting faculty for Dominican’s MFA program, teaching poetry and short fiction.
Judge’s Website
2020 Winners
- First Prize: Lynda LaRocca of Salida, CO
“The Fisherman’s Wife” - Second Prize: Abby Caplin of San Francisco, CA
“Regret” - Third Prize: Sharon Fain of Walnut Creek, CA
“Fiftieth Year in California”
2020 Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order)
Ellie Anderson of Bellevue, WA for “Bread”
Michael Baldwin of Benbrook, TX for “Basket”
Abby Caplin of San Francisco, CA for “Of Mere Living” and “California Fires Everywhere”
Jan Dederick of El Cerrito, CA for “Her Garden is the Warden”
Casey FitzSimons of Redwood City, CA for “The Bay Rises” and “Hot Sunday in Charleston”
Jodi Hottel of Santa Rosa, CA for “Rules of Detention”
Anthony Howarth of Patterson, NY for “Old Man Rests in Chair”
Sharon Pretti of San Francisco, CA for “Inside the Alzheimer’s Unit”