DELRAY BEACH, FL — April 17, 2020 – Five cash prizes and five honorable mentions were selected by our contest judge, the distinguished poet, Stephen Gibson. The First Place Winner receives $100, and winners of Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Places each receive $25.00. The winners are:
FIRST PLACE:
Erika Michael, “Schtick, A Riff on Adhesif” inspired by Caroline Dechambay’s Adhesif
SECOND PLACE:
Vivian Shipley, “An Old Husband’s Tale” inspired by Rick Lazes’ Meghan
THIRD PLACE:
Sheila Kelly, “Skin” inspired by Becky Ross’s Expensive Taste
FOURTH PLACE:
Michelle Winkler, “Sonnet for 2020” inspired by Sonia Sanchez Arias’ Dorian Gray
FIFTH PLACE:
Django Bisous, “Modern Masque for Mondrian” inspired by Caroline Dechambay’s Adhesif
Five HONORABLE MENTIONS were selected: henry 7. reneau, jr., “Jackie Kennedy in Pink Chanel” and Susan Carroll Jewell, “Georgia O’Keeffe Buys a Pink Suit” (both inspired by Timo Weill’s Pink Suit); Victoria Otto Franzese, “DGS” and Amalia Mavrofrides, “The Dress” (both inspired by Sonia Sanchez Arias’s Dorian Gray); and Stephen Mead, “Yum” (inspired by Becky Ross’s Expensive Taste.
All five prize-winning poems will be featured in the May issue of South Florida Poetry Journal. All winning poems, including honorable mention poems, will be published on the website and in press release and social media announcements.
The works in Art Couture: The Intersection of Fashion and Art focus on contemporary art that is fashion-inspired, and on fashion designers’ couture designs and illustrations. Fashion as art, important works of contemporary art, and couture designs featured on mannequins are all part of this exciting exhibition. Six galleries with three designers and three galleries of artwork, and an atrium space holding contemporary art. The eight works from the exhibition offer poets plenty of inspiration for ekphrastic poems.
About the selection process, Judge Stephen Gibson said, “This was a terrific group of poets, and their responses to the art works were varied and exciting and full of surprises. Please convey my thanks to all of the poets who entered this year’s contest, those represented by my selections and those who were not because they were all in different ways deserving.”
The contest offered poets the opportunity to take inspiration from the following eight works selected from the Art Couture Exhibition:
(Click on each image to see a larger high-res version.)
Ekphrastic Poems come from the poetic tradition of taking inspiration from objects and works of art known as “ekphrasis” from the Greek. These may include literal descriptions of a work of art, the poet´s mood in response to a work of art, metaphorical associations inspired by a work of art, or personal memories about a work of art.
Contest Judge Stephen Gibson, is the author of seven poetry collections, most recently, Self-Portrait in a Door-Length Mirror, winner of the 2017 Miller Williams Prize (Univ. of Arkansas Press), selected by Billy Collins. His poetry and fiction have appeared in such journals as American Arts Quarterly, Gargoyle, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, North American Review, The Paris Review, Pleiades, Poetry, River Styx, The Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, and The Yale Review among others. He taught for thirty-two years at the Belle Glade campus of Palm Beach State College.
*This competition would not be possible without the collaboration of Old School Square and The Cornell Art Museum. Images courtesy of the Cornell Art Museum at Old School Square and artists as noted above.
