Michael Janairo

Web Analytics

Tag: poetry

  • Line of Advance Announces Winners of 2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards

    Some great news today: Line of Advance, a nonprofit literary journal founded by three veterans of the war in Afghanistan, wrote me this morning to say I poem I wrote inspired by stories of my Lolo during World War II is a winner in the 2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards. The poem will be published online in September and in print in October in an anthology called Our Best War Stories.

    I have always been proud of my family members’ military service, my uncle Raymond, killed in action in World War II, and my Lolo, father, and Uncle Tony — all three of them West Point grads. You can read a little bit more about my Lolo in a previous post.

    Now I am also proud to be among the first group of civilians to be honored with this award, for both poetry and prose. This year was the first year military family members were invited to submit to the annual contest. I’m glad they expanded who is eligible. When you are part of a military family, a lot of your daily life is defined by the military experience—everyday things like where you live, where you shop, changes in schools and places of worship.

    Thank you to Line of Advance, editor Christopher Lyke, and guest judge Katey Schultz, and congratulations to all the winners!

    Among the winners, here are all the prize-winners in my category: poetry by a military family member:

    • First-prize: “Pursuit” by Lisa Stice
    • Second-prize: “Dancing with my Father” by Ellyana Gomez
    • Third-prize: “An Offering” by Michael Janairo

    You can read the award announcement here.

  • Because I Could Not Stop For Death

    Check out this video adaptation of Julian Peters’ poetry comic for this Emily Dickinson poem. The video is by Jim Avis. The comic is from Peters’ new book, Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry (Plough Publishing)

  • 2020 Rhysling Award Winners

    The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, of which I am a member, has just announced the winners of the 42nd annual Rhysling Awards for best speculative poems of the year.

    The winners were selected in two categories, Long Form and Short
    Form Poems, which were nominated by the members of the organization. From 67 publications. 77 poems in the Short Form category and 49 poems in the Long Form category were reviewed for almost 16 weeks by the membership, which includes award-winning educators, scholars, and poets from a diverse range of literary traditions and specializations. This year, the membership selected the following winners (links to the poems included where possible):

    SHORT

    First Place
    “Taking, Keeping” • Jessica J. Horowitz • Apparition Lit 5

    Second Place
    “when my father reprograms my mother {” • Caroline Mao • Strange Horizons, Fund Drive

    Third Place (tie)
    “Creation: Dark Matter Dating App” • , Sandra J. Lindow • Asimov’s SF, July/August, and 
    “The Day the Animals Turned to Sand” • Tyler Hagemann • Amazing Stories, Spring 2019

    LONG

    First Place
    “Heliobacterium daphnephilum” • Rebecca Buchanan • Star*Line 42.3

    Second Place
    “The Cinder Girl Burns Brightly” • Theodora Goss • Uncanny 28

    Third Place
    “Ode to the Artistic Temperament” • Michael H. Payne • Silver Blade 42
    and 
    “The Macabre Modern” • Kyla Lee Ward • The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities (P’rea Press)

    (more…)

  • Poetry reading at Troy Kitchen, 9/8/19

    The Spring 2019 Community Writers Workshop participants. Back row from left, Eliana Rowe, Jeffrey Aaron Stubits, Melissa Hurt, instructor and UAlbany alum D. Colin, Amy Nedeau, Stephanie Nolan, Karin Lin-Greenberg and Phyllis Hillinger. Front row, Linda Berkery, Michael Janairo, Patti Croop and Lynn Trudeau. Missing from the photo are Matresa Flowers, Daniel Gorman, Kendall Hoeft and Annika Nerf.

    Check it out: I’m one of fifteen people who recently took part in the New York State Writers Institute Community Writers Workshop and will complete the poetry course with a public reading at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 8, at Troy Kitchen, 77 Congress St.

    The event is free and open to the public, and marks the first time that NYS Writers Institute workshop participants will give a public reading.

    Read the story in the Troy Record …

  • Publication: ‘The Tahamaling’ in Mirror Dance

    My poem “The Tahamaling” has just been published in Mirror Dance, edited by Megan Arkenberg.

    Check it out here.

  • Publication: ‘Inside Infinity’ in Thimble Literary Magazine

    My poem Inside Infinity: Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Dots Mirrored Room, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh has just been published in Thimble Literary Magazine, edited by Nadia Wolnisty.

    Check it out here.

  • Now reading: Life on Mars

    Best lines so far, from “My God, It’s Full of Stars”:

    We saw to the edge of all there is—

    So brutal and alive it seemed to comprehend us back.

  • New poem: ‘A Shooting Star’ in Eye to the Telescope

    Screen Shot 2018-10-30 at 9.41.31 PMThank you to editor Colleen Anderson and Eye to the Telescope for publishing my haiku in Eye to the Telescope Issue 29: The Dark.  If you click on the link, you can scroll to the end to read it. The poem is much shorter than even this blog post.

    The poem, by the way, was written during my stay at an artist residency in Cadaqués, Spain. So thank you to Catherine and Sergio for making the new poem possible!

  • SFPA announces 2018 Rhysling Awards

    Congratulations to the 2018 Rhysling Award winners!

    These are the best speculative poems of 2017, as voted on by members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (I am a voting member). This was my first time voting for the awards (and my first time being nominated, for the long poem “Instructions for Astronauts.” I enjoyed all these winning poems, and think it’s great that Mary Soon Lee won in both categories, including for a poem published in the same new journal I was published in, Mithila Review.but I still think Brandon O’Brien’s “Birth, Place” from Uncanny Magazine 18 deserves more recognition. You can read it here.

    It is especially poignant that the Sara Cleto’s poem was published in the long-time fan favorite journal Mythic Delirium which, after twenty years, closed up shop with its April 2018 issue. The win is a testament to Mike Allen’s vision and talent and hard work.

    Out of 83 short poems, and 63 long poems, only three won in each category. Click on the titles for links to the poems to read them. Enjoy!

    Short Poem Category

    First Place
    “Advice to a Six-Year-Old”
    Mary Soon Lee • Star*Line 40.2

    Second Place
    “How to Grieve: A Primer for Witches”
    Sara Cleto • Mythic Delirium, May

    Third Place
    “Gramarye”
    F. J. Bergmann • Polu Texni 12/26/17

    Long Poem Category

    First Place
    “The Mushroom Hunters”
    Neil Gaiman • Brainpickings 4/26/17

    Second Place
    “For Preserves”
    Cassandra Rose Clarke • Star*Line 40.4

    Third Place
    “Alternate Genders”
    Mary Soon Lee • Mithila Review 9