Emily Schulten is the winner of the 2024 Ralph Angel Poetry Prize.
Richard Jackson to Judge Fourth Annual Ralph Angel Poetry Prize - Submissions Open
For the month of April, Foundlings Press will accept submissions for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. This year’s guest judge is Richard Jackson. The winning poet will receive a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. Submission is free and open to all.
SELECTION AND PRIZE
The winner of the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize will receive $250 and publication of a limited-edition run of letterpress broadsides of the winning poem designed by Foundlings Press printmaker and book artist in residence Talia Ryan. The broadsides will be available for sale exclusively at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Entry is free
Send only one poem as a PDF attachment to publisher@foundlingspress.com
Submissions must be previously unpublished
Entry window opens April 1 at 11:59pm ET and closes May 1 at 11:59pm ET
We will disregard submissions that arrive outside that window
Past Winners
2023: “Moon Jar,” by Emma Aylor, selected by Victoria Redel
2022: “Sestina for Klein Blue,” by Emma Fuchs, selected by David St. John
2021: “The Biologists,” by Margarita Serafimova, selected by Mary Ruefle
Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson is the author of 17 books of poetry including The Heart as Framed: New and Select Poems, Dispatches, Where The Wind Comes From and Broken Horizons, and 12 books of essays, interviews, translations, editions and anthologies. Winner of Guggenheim, Fulbright, NEA. NEH and Witter Bynner Fellowships and the order of Freedom from the President of Slovenia for his literary and humanitarian work during the Balkan wars, he has also edited 32 chapbooks from eastern European poets.
His poems have been translated into 17 languages and his books have won the U of Alabama Book Award, Cleveland State Book Prize, U Mass Juniper Prize, Ashland Poetry Press Award, Eric Hofer Award, Maxine Kumin Award, Ben Franklin Award. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies such as 5 Pushcart appearances, Best American Poems, Best of Georgia Review, Best of Crazy Horse, Prairie Schooner Anthology and others. He has given readings and lectures at dozens of universities and libraries as well as in Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Canada, England, Wales, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary and Romania. Over 52 of his former UT-Chattanooga undergrads have gone on to publish nearly 130 books. He is Distinguished Emeritus Professor at UTC and founder of the Meacham Writers’ Workshops.
Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
REMEMBERING RALPH ANGEL
Ralph Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Foundlings Press Publisher Aidan Ryan says: I remember vividly speaking with Ralph over the phone, in the first days of the new year, about his contribution to our series. His voice was like his poems: patient, clear, direct, with a laugh always waiting in the wings. Here was a celebrated poet, a senior statesman of poetry, taking a call from a stranger and offering his work (without any chance of acclaim or fair remuneration) to an upstart, unproven little press from Buffalo. I remember the gratitude, amazement, and and relief I felt when Ralph so immediately understood our spirit as a press and the thrust of the Strays project. And what a gift his poems were.
Ralph left behind an incredible body of work, but he also left a legacy of support, guidance, and inspiration for younger poets as well as his contemporaries. I’m happy that, with Mary Angel’s blessing and assistance, we can honor Ralph in a way that feels continuous with his life’s work: By recognizing, honoring, and encouraging the work of other poets.
More information about Ralph and his poetry is available at https://ralphangel.com/.
Victoria Redel Selects Emma Aylor's "Moon Jar" for the 2023 Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
Victoria Redel to Judge the 2023 Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
For the month of April, Foundlings Press will accept submissions for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. This year’s guest judge is Victoria Redel. The winning poet will receive a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. Submission is free and open to all.
SELECTION AND PRIZE
The winner of the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize will receive $250 and publication of a limited-edition run of letterpress broadsides of the winning poem. The broadsides will be available for sale exclusively at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Entry is free
Send only one poem as a PDF attachment to publisher@foundlingspress.com
Submissions must be previously unpublished
Entry window opens March 31 at 11:59pm ET and closes April 30 at 11:59pm ET
We will disregard submissions that arrive outside that window
Past Winners
2022: “Sestina for Klein Blue,” by Emma Fuchs, selected by David St. John
2021: “The Biologists,” by Margarita Serafimova, selected by Mary Ruefle
Victoria Redel
Victoria Redel is a first generation American author of four books of poetry and five books of fiction, most recently the poetry collection Paradise and the novel Before Everything.
Redel is the recipient of the Kent State Wick Poetry Award, Graywolf Press’ S. Mariella Gable Award, and was a finalist for the James Laughlin Second Book Award. Her novel Loverboy was adapted for a feature film directed by Kevin Bacon. Her fiction, poetry and essays have been translated into 12 languages. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for The Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center.
Redel is on the graduate and undergraduate faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. She has also taught in the Graduate Writing Programs of Columbia University, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and was the 2013 McGee Professor at Davidson College.
Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Remembering Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Foundlings Press Publisher Aidan Ryan says: I remember vividly speaking with Ralph over the phone, in the first days of the new year, about his contribution to our series. His voice was like his poems: patient, clear, direct, with a laugh always waiting in the wings. Here was a celebrated poet, a senior statesman of poetry, taking a call from a stranger and offering his work (without any chance of acclaim or fair remuneration) to an upstart, unproven little press from Buffalo. I remember the gratitude, amazement, and and relief I felt when Ralph so immediately understood our spirit as a press and the thrust of the Strays project. And what a gift his poems were.
Ralph left behind an incredible body of work, but he also left a legacy of support, guidance, and inspiration for younger poets as well as his contemporaries. I’m happy that, with Mary Angel’s blessing and assistance, we can honor Ralph in a way that feels continuous with his life’s work: By recognizing, honoring, and encouraging the work of other poets.
More information about Ralph and his poetry is available at https://ralphangel.com/.
Printmaker Talia Ryan Joins Foundlings Press for the Annual Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
Visual artist and printmaker Talia Ryan is joining Foundlings Press as the resident artist of the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. Working at the Western New York Book Arts Center, Talia will design and produce a limited-edition broadside for Emma Fuchs’s “Sestina for Klein Blue", which guest judge David St. John selected for the second annual Ralph Angel Poetry prize. The broadside will be available from Foundlings Press in late 2022.
View some of Talia’s recent work, including textile prints, lino, intaglio, letterpress incorporated, and book arts, below:
The Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
Established in 2021, the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize honors the late Ralph Angel, a friend of Foundlings press who appeared in the inaugural Stray in January 2020 before his passing that spring. Each year, Foundlings welcomes single-poem submissions, and a guest judge picks one work to honor with publication in a limited edition broadside. In the first year of the prize, guest judge Mary Ruefle selected Margarita Serafimova’s poem “The Biologists.” Foundlings Art Director Darren Canham produced the limited edition broadside at the Western New York Book Arts Center (WNYBAC) in Buffalo. In the second year of the prize, guest judge David St. John selected Emma Fuchs and her poem “Sestina for Klein Blue,” which will be available later this year.
About Talia Ryan
Talia Ryan is a Buffalo-based artist and art educator. She is primarily a printmaker and painter, but her wide-ranging practice has included photography, textiles, and sculpture. PAUSA Art House hosted the first solo exhibition of Talia’s work in December 2019, and she has joined group exhibitions at the Castellani Art Museum and Nazareth College Calacino Gallery. In the summer of 2021 she was awarded an artist residency at the WNY Book Arts Center, where she is now a teaching artist. She holds dual BA and MA degrees in Studio Art and Art Education from Nazareth College. In addition to working as a studio artist, she teaches advanced studio and AP art at Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School in downtown Buffalo.
Follow
IG: @taliaryan.art
Emma Fuchs Wins Ralph Angel Poetry Prize for 2022
April: Accepting Submissions for the Second Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
For the month of April, Foundlings Press will accept submissions for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize. This year’s guest judge is David St. John. The winning poet will receive a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. Submission is free and open to all.
SELECTION AND PRIZE
The winner of the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize will receive $250 and publication of a limited-edition run of letterpress broadsides of the winning poem. The broadsides will be available for sale exclusively at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Entry is free
Send only one poem as a PDF attachment to publisher@foundlingspress.com
Submissions must be previously unpublished
Entry window opens March 31 at 11:59pm ET and closes April 30 at 11:59pm ET
We will disregard submissions that arrive outside that window
MARY RUEFLE PICKS INAUGURAL RALPH ANGEL POETRY PRIZE WINNER MARGARITA SERAFIMOVA
Foundlings Press introduced the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize in 2021, with the blessing of Mary Angel and assistance from generous friends. Mary Ruefle, a close friend of Ralph Angel and of the press, served as the first guest judge. She selected Margarita Serafimova. Margarita’s poem “The Biologists” is available as a limited-edition broadside now.
ABOUT DAVID ST. JOHN
David St. John is an American poet. He has been honored, over the course of his career, with many prizes for poets, including: both the Rome Prize Fellowship and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters; the O. B. Hardison Prize (a career award for teaching and poetic achievement) from The Folger Shakespeare Library; and the George Drury Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation.
He is the author of eleven collections of poetry (including Study for the World’s Body, nominated for The National Book Award in Poetry), most recently The Last Troubadour: New and Selected Poems, as well as a volume of essays, interviews and reviews entitled Where the Angels Come Toward Us. He is the co-editor of American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry and the editor of The Selected Levis and The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems of Larry Levis.
David St. John has written libretti for the opera, THE FACE, and for the choral symphony, THE SHORE. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016) and named a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (2017). David St. John is University Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Chair of English at The University of Southern California. He lives with his wife, poet and essayist Anna Journey, in Venice Beach, California.
David St. John
ABOUT RALPH ANGEL
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Foundlings Press Publisher Aidan Ryan says: I remember vividly speaking with Ralph over the phone, in the first days of the new year, about his contribution to our series. His voice was like his poems: patient, clear, direct, with a laugh always waiting in the wings. Here was a celebrated poet, a senior statesman of poetry, taking a call from a stranger and offering his work (without any chance of acclaim or fair remuneration) to an upstart, unproven little press from Buffalo. I remember the gratitude, amazement, and and relief I felt when Ralph so immediately understood our spirit as a press and the thrust of the Strays project. And what a gift his poems were.
Ralph left behind an incredible body of work, but he also left a legacy of support, guidance, and inspiration for younger poets as well as his contemporaries. I’m happy that, with Mary Angel’s blessing and assistance, we can honor Ralph in a way that feels continuous with his life’s work: By recognizing, honoring, and encouraging the work of other poets.
More information about Ralph and his poetry is available at https://ralphangel.com/.
In Memory of Ralph Angel
Mary Ruefle Selects Margarita Serafimova for the Inaugural Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
Foundlings Press is pleased to announce that Margarita Serafimova has won the inaugural Ralph Angel poetry prize, judged by Mary Ruefle.
The inaugural contest saw over 200 submissions. Ruefle and the reading group selected a longlist, a shortlist, and three finalists in addition to Serafimova, whose poem “The Biologists” takes top honors. Foundlings Press will publish “The Biologists” in a limited-edition letterpress broadside produced at Western New York Book Arts Center and available from FoundlingsPress.com.
About the Winner: Margarita Serafimova
Margarita Serafimova is the winner of the 2020 biennial Tony Quagliano/ Hawai’i Council for the Humanities International Award for innovative poetry 'recognizing an accomplished poet with an outstanding body of work', 2020 and 2021 Pushcart nominee and a finalist in nine other U.S. and international poetry contests. She has four collections in Bulgarian and two in English, ‘A Surgery of A Star’ (2020) and ‘Еn-tîm’ ('The Forest') (2021). Her work appears widely, including at Nashville Review, LIT, Agenda Poetry, Poetry South, Steam Ticket, Waxwing, Reunion Dallas, Trafika Europe, Obra/ Artifact, Botticelli, Shrew, Noble/ Gas, Great Weather for Media, Landfill, Nixes Mate. Visit.
Finalists
Jack Christian
Dara Yen Elerath
Alina Stefanescu
Shortlist
Emily Alexander
Jen Ashburn
Frances Cannon
Will Cordiero
TJ DiFrancesco
Stephanie Yue Duhem
Sam Ferrante
Joan Glass
Jonathan Hoel
Victoria Hudson
Saba Keramati
Paul Kopp
Edward Krzeminski
Özge Lena
Ojo Taiye
Fathima Zahra
Longlist
Sarah Ghazal Ali
Kyle Anderson
Sara Backer
Ansie Baird
S. Erin Batiste
Sayan Aich Bhowmik
Prince Bush
Willa Carroll
Jeffrey Chang
Martin Cossio
Sean Thomas Dougherty
Jehanne Dubrow
Aidan Forster
Lesley Graham
Anya Groner
Gabrielle Grace Hogan
Leah Kaminski
Jakob Maier
Dan Mallette
Cassidy McFadzean
Matt Mitchell
Anne Myles
Maya Owen
Jody Stewart
Marion Winik
Rachel Franklin Wood
About The Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
The Ralph Angel Poetry Prize honors the memory of the late Ralph Angel, a poet, teacher, and friend to many—including Foundlings Press. The prize recognizes a single poem; the winning poet receives a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. Mary Ruefle judged the inaugural prize, introduced in spring 2021.
Foundlings Press will produce the broadsides at Western New York Book Arts Center and they will be available for sale exclusively at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
About Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Our 2021 Wallace Award Winner: Rachel Stempel's Interiors
L to R: Rachel Stempel and Julie Molloy
The third biennial Wallace Award from Foundlings Press goes to the poet Rachel Stempel.
The Wallace Award—a prize we introduced in 2017—honors a chapbook and pairs the winning poet with a guest book artist to create original cover art for the publication. The award is named for Wallace “Wally” Canham, Art Director Darren Canham’s dog and our little band’s beloved mascot, lodestar, and occasional production assistant.
2021 Wallace Award Finalists
Submissions for the 2021 Wallace Award opened in late fall 2020. This year saw the largest-ever batch of entries. From this outstanding field, Foundlings Press recognized the following finalists:
Eric Benick
Shantha Bunyan
Selena Cotte (@selenacotte)
Kristen Steenbeeke (@ksteenbeeke)
Rachel Stempel (@failed captcha)
Rachel Stempel and Interiors
Rachel Stempel, winner of the 2021 Wallace Award from Foundlings Press, is a genderqueer Ukrainian-Jewish poet and educator. They are a staff writer at Up the Staircase Quarterly and EX/POST MAGAZINE and a poetry editor at MAYDAY Magazine. They are the author of the chapbook BEFORE THE DESIRE TO EAT (Finishing Line Press 2022) and their work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Porter House Review, New Delta Review, Penn Review, and elsewhere. They currently live in New York with their rabbit, Diego.
Rachel’s chapbook Interiors will be available for purchase in winter 2021.
Follow: @failedcaptcha
2021 Guest Artist Julie Molloy
Julie Molloy is an illustrator, designer and art director at Block Club, an award-winning branding and strategy agency in Buffalo. Her gallery work debuted in 2014 in her solo show, Inside Voices, a series exploring the relationship between our public faces and private lives. She has since been featured in The Public and elsewhere, displayed her work at events with partners like Peach Mag, and taken on a wide variety of illustration projects, including designing the cover of Matthew Bookin’s chapbook Palace (Ghost City Press, 2018) and many private commissions. Based in Buffalo, she is currently living and working in Mexico City.
View: https://www.juliemolloy.com/
Follow:https://www.instagram.com/juleeclip/
Previous Wallace Award Winners and Guest Artists
2017: Lytton Smith—My Radar Data Knows Its Thing—Order Here
Guest Artist: Stephen Fitzmaurice
2019: Nicholas Molbert—Goodness Gracious—Order Here
Guest Artist: Edreys Wajed
Mary Ruefle to Judge Inaugural Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
We’re very pleased to share that Mary Ruefle will judge our inaugural Ralph Angel Poetry Prize.
We announced the prize, which honors the late poet Ralph Angel, in March. Submissions are open (and free) through April. The inaugural prize will recognize a single poem; the winning poet, selected by Mary Ruefle, will receive a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. The broadsides will be available for sale exclusively here at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Entry is free
Send only one poem as a Word or PDF attachment to publisher@foundlingspress.com
Submissions must be previously unpublished
Entry window closes April 30 at 11:59pm ET
ABOUT RALPH ANGEL
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.
Foundlings Press Publisher Aidan Ryan says: I remember vividly speaking with Ralph over the phone, in the first days of the new year, about his contribution to our series. His voice was like his poems: patient, clear, direct, with a laugh always waiting in the wings. Here was a celebrated poet, a senior statesman of poetry, taking a call from a stranger and offering his work (without any chance of acclaim or fair remuneration) to an upstart, unproven little press from Buffalo. I remember the gratitude, amazement, and and relief I felt when Ralph so immediately understood our spirit as a press and the thrust of the Strays project. And what a gift his poems were.
Ralph left behind an incredible body of work, but he also left a legacy of support, guidance, and inspiration for younger poets as well as his contemporaries. I’m happy that, with Mary Angel’s blessing and assistance, we can honor Ralph in a way that feels continuous with his life’s work: By recognizing, honoring, and encouraging the work of other poets.
More information about Ralph and his poetry is available at https://ralphangel.online/.
Mary Ruefle | Photo Credit: Matt Valentine
ABOUT MARY RUEFLE
Mary Ruefle is the author of many books, including Dunce (Wave Books, 2019), My Private Property (Wave Books, 2016), Trances of the Blast (Wave Books, 2013), Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures (Wave Books, 2012), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Selected Poems (Wave Books, 2010), winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has also published a comic book, Go Home and Go to Bed (Pilot Books/Orange Table Comics, 2007), and is an erasure artist, whose treatments of nineteenth century texts have been exhibited in museums and galleries and published in A Little White Shadow (Wave Books, 2006). Ruefle is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Robert Creeley Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Whiting Award. She lives in Bennington, Vermont.
More information about Mary and her poetry is available at http://maryruefle.com/.