Wyoming Writers Inc. contest poetry winners announced

Wyoming Writers announced its annual contest award winners on June 7. Awards categories were Traditional Poetry, Free Verse Poetry, Short and Sweet, Children's/Juvenile Fiction, Nonfiction and Fiction. 

Winners of the Traditional Poetry section:  (28 entries)

• First Place: "Music Not Heard" by Art Elser, Denver, Colorado    
• Second Place:  "Alone (after Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks)" by Gail Denham, Sunriver, Oregon     
• Third Place: "Prepositions" by Cornelius F. Kelly, Pinedale, Wyoming
• Honorable Mentions: "Winter Hawk" by Renee Meador, Big Horn, Wyoming, and "Heavenly Pillow Fight" by Shelagh Wulff Wisdom, Douglas, Wyoming         
  

Winners of the Free Verse Poetry section:  (56 entries)

• First Place: "Last Thoughts before Drinking From The River Lethe" by Constance Brewer, Gillette, Wyoming
• Second Place: "She Carried Oklahoma With Her" by Gail Denham, Sunriver, Oregon     
• Third Place: "Lies We Tell To Our Children" by Constance Brewer,   Gillette, Wyoming
• Honorable Mentions: "Generosities" by Lynn Carlson, Cheyenne, Wyoming; "Beloved" by Renee Meador, Big Horn, Wyoming; and "Best Friends" by Constance Brewer, Gillette, Wyoming     

Carol Hamilton, Midwest City, Oklahoma judged the poetry category. She is a former elementary school teacher in Connecticut, Indiana and Oklahoma, the last twelve years in an elementary school for gifted children. She taught in the English Department at Rose State College and on the graduate faculty of the writing program at the University of Central Oklahoma. She received her Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. As a writer, she has won a Southwest Book Award, an Oklahoma Book Award, Cherubim Award, Pegasus Award, Chiron Review Chapbook Award, David Ray Poetry Prize, the Byline Literary Awards for both short story and poetry, and the Warren Keith Poetry Prize. She has published 16 books of poetry, legends, and children’s novels, and publishes poetry, short stories and articles in magazines and journals including The Christian Science Monitor, New York, Quarterly, Poet Lore, Atlanta Review, and others. She is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize five times. 

See the award winners for all categories on the Wyoming Wr