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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  • Submissions must be previously unpublished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/.


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.

Submissions Open for Inaugural Ralph Angel Poetry Prize

For the month of April, Foundlings Press will accept submissions for a new prize in honor of the late poet Ralph Angel. The inaugural Ralph Angel Poetry Prize will recognize a single poem; 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.

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/

Selection and Prize

The winner of the inaugural 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 Word or PDF attachment to publisher@foundlingspress.com

  • Submissions must be previously unpublished

  • Entry window closes April 30 at 11:59pm ET