WINNERS of the 2016 Pride in Poetry Prize by NavWorks Press

Announcing the 2016 Pride in Poetry Prize Winners

A grand total of 299 poems were submitted by 119 poets (entrants).

There were 7 total judges, 4 female and 3 male.

5 of the judges were poets and writers who do not participate on LinkedIn, Writer’s Café, We Write Poetry?, NavWorks Press Twitter & Facebook, PoemHunter, Goodreads, nor AllPoetry.

As far as I know these 5 did not “know” nor “know of” any of the contest entrants prior to judging. Names were stripped from all entries with only the poems presented to each judge, all in Times New Roman font, 12 pt., making everything completely and totally anonymous and uniform except for the poem’s own structure.

It is interesting to note that out of the 7 judges, no 2 judges selected the same poem as the "first place" winner. There were 35 shortlist finalists. There were about 12 poems that were consistently chosen in the top 5, and only 3 that received more than 1 top-3 placement.

Please do NOT publish or post the actual winning poems in whole or part until the Pride in Poetry Prize II anthology is completed and released. Thank you.

I want to thank the 7 judges for their time and effort in reading and evaluating the poems and choosing the following, by consensus of points, to be the winners.

I want to thank every poet that submitted work and participated in this prize and endeavor. All your contributions were well appreciated, but alas, only a certain fraction can be chosen as winners and a certain number be chosen for publication.

Winning poets, if I have presented an improper pen name for your work, please advise me immediately so that I may correct it.

2016 Pride in Poetry Prize Winners

Top Three

First Place — A Reflective Moment by Clark Cook

Second Place — the moon does not linger by w r rodriguez

Third Place — Again by Vera Ignatowitsch

Honorable Mentions (rest of Top Ten)

Fourth Place — Farm Wife by Barb Franzen

Fifth Place — Father by Diane Timpone

Sixth Place — Alone by Marjon van Bruggen

Seventh Place — [a string of 3 Tanka] by GBerreitter

Eighth Place — Invisible Son by B R Walker

Ninth Place — Where We Feast by Rive of Poetry Park

Tenth Place — A visit back in time (Joshua Tree National Park) by Sharon McCarthy

Additional Poets with Poems Chosen as Finalists

Denise C. Buschmann with Small Things Are the Stuff of Life

Marsha Smith with My Friend Tess

Lawrence Raybon with Sand Castle

Tate Morgan with Character

Nolo Segundo with Flying Over Vietnam, 1974

Tina M. Winslow with All That Was

Dhiman Saha with Waves of Life

Ashlee Emmet with monsters

Takako Itoh with Buzz

Most of the poets named above will have another of their submitted poems accepted for publication in addition to the winning/selected poem noted.

The winners of the 2015 We Write Poetry? William Carlos Williams Prize were promised that their winning poems would be published in the upcoming Pride in Poetry Volume II. So the following will also be published.

2015 We Write Poetry? William Carlos Williams Prize Winners

First Place — Deceived by Barb Franzen

Second Place — “such fragility...” by Monique Cerundolo

Third Place — “the shadows float...” by Clark Cook

Tied for Fourth Place

— “my father’s hands held...” by Ann White

— “A memory...” by Thomasena Martin-Johnson

Tied for Fifth Place

— “This wooden chest hides...” by Marjon van Bruggen

— “Sound of music...” by Yvonne Dondo

Pride in Poetry Prize — Other Poems Selected for Publication (in addition to other listed winners and finalists)

A Sonnet for Hope by Jacqueline Sherlock

After Being Stoned in the Spanish Inquisition by Sergio A. Ortiz

Cavalier by Tatjana Loncarec

Dark in the Morning by Oya Aydan

Drowning by Francis de Aguilar

“I know it’s not easy...” by Nicole Gagnon

It’s Not About Me by Morgan Yai

Not A Love Poem by Ameris Poquette

Stratagem by mustofa munir

Take My Hand by Magenta

If your name does not appear on any of the 2016 Pride in Poetry winners lists or selected lists above, then your poem did not make the 35 poem shortlist.

All those whose work was selected will receive an email or message with further details.

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S ! to all the winners and all those whose work was selected. ?

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DE Navarro is the Founder of NavWorks Press, an Author, Poet, Editor, Publisher, Speaker, and Life-coach. He is the Originator and owner of We Write Poetry? forums and the Pride in Poetry Prize? and Publication. Husband, Father, Mentor and Friend. Banking Sr Analyst, Tech Editor/Writer.

Visit DE's Beautiful Website for peace and to learn more about his work.

DE is also an experienced global banking professional working in business risk analysis and internal controls as a senior analyst and tech editor/writer.

He writes work-life balance and quality of life articles for over 330,000 employees in his company, worldwide.

He is a published author, poet, and editor with degrees in Communications, Business and Ministerial Leadership. He has over 40 years of experience in writing and editing.

He has published books and articles on life goals, ethics, biblical research, philosophy, language studies, financial management, time management, aromatherapy, racism, writing and writing poetry.

In addition to this, he does freelance writing and editing under the name NavWorks Press.

He published Between Life and Language in 2009, an anthology of 107 poems by 76 different poets, and Dare to Soar in 2013, his own collection of 12 essays and 151 poems. He also provides writing and editing services with five published novels to credit, one non-fiction book, and hundreds of edited articles and essays.

He ran an extremely popular online poetry writing forum from 2006-2009 with over 10,000 hits per week. He currently manages two LinkedIn Groups, We Write Poetry ?, and Book Story: for Writers Authors Poets Readers and a We Write Poetry Challenge Channel on Disqus.

There are currently several poetry anthology projects on the docket and plans to accept submitted manuscripts for publication in the future. NavWorks Press will unveil a number of publication packages in the near future to help poets and writers self-publish professional and highly polished chapbooks and other works.