We are pleased to share that Victoria Redel has selected Emma Aylor’s poem “Moon Jar” for the 2023 Ralph Angel Poetry Prize.
Emma Aylor is the author of Close Red Water (forthcoming October 2023), winner of the Barrow Street Poetry Book Prize. Her poems have appeared in New England Review, AGNI, Colorado Review, Poetry Daily, the Yale Review Online, and elsewhere. Originally from Bedford County, Virginia, she lives in Lubbock, Texas, where she is a PhD candidate at Texas Tech University.
“Moon Jar” will be available as a limited-edition broadside designed by Ralph Angel Prize Resident Artist Talia Ryan. Check back for more information later this year.
This year’s finalists and long list are below. Thanks to all who submitted work and congratulations to Emma and the other poets recognized here.
Emma Aylor
Finalists
Mayowa Oyewale - “Poem”
Sarah Sousa - “Ivy and Sumac”
Katie Umans - “The Current”
Long List
Joe Amaral - “Scrapwood”
Tom Carlson - “A Mountain Always Enters Scree-Side”
Jennifer Gauthier - “Wild Pacific Trail, Christmas 2018”
Oz Hardwick - “A Temporal Phonology of Birdsong”
Mary Liza Hartong - “Forever Stamps”
Jen Karetnick - “After the Deluge”
Elizabeth Lutz - “Porch Cats”
Michael Mingo - “A Lesson Over Breakfast”
David Mohan - “The Field Fire Almanac”
Carolyn Oliver - “Camera Obscura”
Irene Sipos - “Tired”
Jennifer Elise Wang - “Reasons I Want To Be A Vampire”
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.
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. We’re 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
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.
About the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
Foundlings Press introduced the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize in 2021, with the blessing of Mary Angel and assistance from generous friends. Held annually, this contest recognizes a single poem. The winning poet, selected by a guest judge, receives $250 and a limited-edition broadside publication of the winning poem.
We typically open for submissions each year in the spring and announce a winner in the summer. Check the News section of our site for updates.
Past winners and judges:
2023: Emma Aylor, “Moon Jar,” selected by Victoria Redel
2022: Emma Fuchs, “Sestina for Klein Blue,” selected by David St. John
2021: Margarita Serafimova, “The Biologists,” selected by Mary Ruefle