KUDOS TO BARBARA GUEST AND WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

Remember the poetry contest I was judging? The results are official--CONGRATULATIONS to Barbara Guest whose posthumous COLLECTED POEMS is the recipient of THE POETRY CENTER BOOK AWARD.

The contest sponsors kindly allowed me to list Finalists and Semi-Finalists, which I believe is the first time this contest has done so. I asked to list other top-notch contenders because I wanted to provide some context for the award recipient. Judging poetry is also subjective so you can assume that perhaps any of the other names could have been winners by other judges' tastes (and all of the books listed are certainly legit winners).

Here are the winners below -- allow me to nota bene a BIG KUDOS to Wesleyan University Press (they published 2 of the finalists as well); from these results, this press clearly is doing what it takes to extend the boundaries of published poetry:

2008 The Poetry Center Book Award

WINNER
THE COLLECTED POEMS OF BARBARA GUEST, ed. Hadley Haden Guest

FINALISTS
ZONG! by M. Nourbese Philip
MY VOCABULARY DID THIS TO ME: THE COLLECTED POETRY OF JACK SPICER, eds. Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian
THE IMPORTANCE OF PEELING POTATOES IN UKRAINE by Mark Yakich

SEMI-FINALISTS
ALL OF IT SINGING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Linda Gregg
INSTALLATIONS by Joe Bonomo
THE MATERIALIST by Rick London
THE TRANSLATOR'S DIARY by Jon Pineda
THE DARK CARD by Rebecca Foust
THE COSMOPOLITAN by Donna Stonecipher
BRIEF UNDER WATER by Cyrus Console
THE WARRIOR by Frances Richey
THE FLOATING BRIDGE by David Shumate
NOW YOU'RE THE ENEMY by James Allen Hall