Inaugural Nina Riggs Poetry Award Winner

Rhett Iseman Trull, Editor of Cave Wall poetry magazine has announced the first winner for The Nina Riggs Poetry Award.

“We were thrilled with the many nominations that came in from individuals, presses, and journals,” Rhett commented. “The 10 finalists that went to the guest judge were powerful poems, all worthy of the award, poems everyone should read.”

Guest Judge Maria Hummel chose Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ poem “Good Mother,” which first appeared in Tin House, as this year’s inaugural winner. Griffiths’ poem can be read here.

The Nina Riggs Poetry Award is a crowd-funded award, with the winner receiving at least $500. “Thanks to the generous donations of so many supporters,” Rhett shared, “we were able to award Rachel Eliza $1,000.”

Honorable Mention went to Melissa Crowe for “Dear Terror, Dear Splendor.”

Finalists

Traci Brimhall, “Oh, Wonder”
Tiana Clark, “A Louder Thing”
Carrie Fountain, “Will You?”
Keetje Kuipers, “Still Life with Small Objects of Perfect Choking Size”
Megan Peak, “What I Don’t Tell My Mother about Ohio”
Thomas Reiter, “Companions”
Anna Ross, “One Time”
Molly Spencer, “A Wooing, Outright, of My Beloved Ones”

Rhett added, “We hope many people will nominate poems for the next round. Any poems received before Nov. 1 will be considered for the 2021 award. We are looking for the finest poems on family, relationships, or domestic life published in the last three years. No self-nominations.”

For more information, visit: http://www.cavewallpress.com/ninaaward.html