POLY BIORESOURCES AND AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING MAJOR WINS ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS PRIZE
Bioresources and Agricultural Engineering major Sarah Marks has won Cal Poly’s Academy of American Poets Contest for her poem “Permission,” which trespasses literally and figuratively to inhabit the land. She will receive a $100 award from the Academy and will also be considered for the Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award, which comes with a cash prize of $1,000 and publication in American Poets magazine.
Award-winning poet Helena Mesa judged this year’s contest. Mesa said: “I was immediately drawn to Mark’s poem for its details, musicality, and leaps. The poem travels through time and space as the speaker carries us along the road; and as we weave through the poem, I'm continually surprised by where the poem goes and how the poem arrives there… The speaker did not and does not have permission to be on this abandoned road. The poem’s tone is evocative and adds to this indirection; that is, the conversational voice and tonal fluctuations create tension. And, finally, I appreciate the poem's final turn, where the poem feels even more intimate and lyrical.”
First honorable mention goes to English major Naomi Phillips for her poem “Now that I have a boyfriend." Mesa noted the poem’s repetition and speed that “capture the speaker’s sudden and insistent desire to have a baby. The details are evocative and reveal both the narrative and the speaker’s emotional landscape, both in what they see and in the transformation of ordinary objects… I feel the speaker’s desire mixed with bewilderment at their changing feelings.”
Second honorable mention goes in a tie to philosophy major Isadora De Liberty for her poem “Triptych from Home” and journalism major Lauren Emo for her poem “Radium Girl.” “You’re working with a talented group of students!,” Mesa commented. “The poems I chose are super different from one another—part of what I enjoyed about reading the submissions was the range of voices, styles, and subjects.” She praised “Triptych from Home” for its ambition as an ekphrastic poem and singled out “Radium Girl” for the way its imagery “yokes the dangerous and deadly with the beautiful and nearly surreal.”
Helena Mesa is the author of Where Land Is Indistinguishable from Sea (Terrapin Books) and Horse Dance Underwater (Cleveland State University Poetry Center). She is also a co-editor for Mentor & Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press), an anthology of essays that examines poetic techniques. A Cuban American born and raised in Pittsburgh, Mesa is a Professor at Albion College and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Cal Poly English Department and the Academy of American Poets, which is a longstanding advocate for the art of poetry and is located in New York City, sponsor the contest. All of the winning poems are available on the English department’s website, and Mark’s “Permission” will also appear on the University & College Poetry Prize page of Poets.org.