The 2023 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest Results
By Nicholas Trandahl, Contest Chair
It’s been another swell year for the annual Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest,
which was I believe my fourth year as Chair! The winners and honorable mentions of the 2023
Eugene V. Shea Contest have been notified and checks have been sent out. This year’s entries
saw a very slight dip of entrants, with only 10 less submissions, but there was nonetheless a fat
ream of poems ripe for judging.
There were 188 poems received from all over the United States
and even Canada, with $ 376.00 collected from entry fees, and a generous .74 cent donation.
Entries were received from all over the country, with poems coming in from California,
Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas,
Utah, and Wyoming.
Poems were also submitted from Ontario, Canada.
Winners and Honorable Mentions were:
● 1st: “Religious Upbringing of Sheepman’s Daughters” by Maureen Tolman
Flannery ( Ten Sleep, WY )
● 2nd: “El Diablo” by Maira Rodriguez ( Alamosa, CO )
● 3rd: “The Patriot ” by Emory Jones ( Luka , MS )
● Honorable Mention: “How we think of mountains” by Ruzena Rok (Star Valley
Ranch, WY)
● Honorable Mention: “Pilfered Peanuts” by Kim Barney ( Kaysville, UT )
● Honorable Mention: “Sustenance” by Mandie Hines ( Cheyenne, WY )
● Honorable Mention: “It Falls Apart in December” by Mandie Hines ( Cheyenne,
WY )
● Honorable Mention: “Bald Eagles Accentuate Winter Dawn” by Renee Meador
( Big Horn, WY)
● Honorable Mention: “‘Bad Biographies:’ Sophie” by Marsha Warren Mittman
(Spearfish, SD)
● Honorable Mention: “Crayons” by Patricia Frolander (Sundance, WY)
It was with pleasure that I handed over this year’s fantastic poetry to the judge for the
2023 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, Ricardo Ruiz.
Ricardo Ruiz is a multi-dimensional writer of poetry and prose. The son of potato factory
workers, Ricardo hails from Othello, Washington. His work draws from his experience as a first-
generation Mexican-American, and from his military service. Ricardo holds an Associate Degree
in Business and Accounting from Big Bend Community College, where he was recognized as
Student of the Year in both Business and Economics, and English Composition. He also holds a
Bachelor of Art in Creative Writing from the University of Washington.
While in the military, Ricardo earned the rank of Staff Sergeant while serving on four deployments, two to Afghanistan. He is passionate about elevating marginalized voices from rural communities and
takes pride in being a conduit for cultural connection. He is the author of We Had Our Reasons ,
published by Pulley Press, a collection of poems written in Spanish and English highlighting the
plight of the Mexican immigrant population in his community.
He had this to say about the winners of the contest:
Religious Upbringing of Sheepman’s Daughters: “The beauty of poetry lives in-between of
words and stanzas and the paradox seen in Religious Upbringing of Sheepman’s Daughters is a
beautiful example of high-level allegory. We are dropped right into the first image of “hermits
and anchorites” being alcoholics. Where the gift the “high priests” to the children are Bull
Durham bags all while our narrator lulls the reader early on creating a sense of comfort with
quick spotted alliteration; “temple of timer, binge to bender” moves in such a comforting way it
distracts from the ruff gritty nature of her teachers. Faith isn’t found for our narrator within the
pews of a steeple or the cleansing of baptism but “purest waters sprang” from within the work
that one does. To survive in this environment hard skills are needed that pass from elder to
youth. Opening the third stanza we are given the line “They’d lived / events so disparate from
the gentleness of sheep, / the clean reliability of the mountain sunrise.” In this line it
encompasses the interiority of the people our narrator admires. They expanding this thought
showing further who they are and the forgiveness available within this mountain religion.
Our narrator paints a story of faith and truth through the lens of the people who work tending sheep and
live by a night fire were pretentiousness has no place.”
El Diablo: “El Diablo provides a glimpse of the Latinx machista culture and how it can protect
abusers and groomers. In terse verse the devil, a “family friend”, takes advantage of his position
hurting young women. His acts “invisible” to most are seen by our keen narrator. This poem
pushes back against outdated cultural heritage through the empowerment of the narrator.”
The Patriot: “‘When tears come easy now / Even when the high school band / Plays the National
Anthem’ holds the sentiment of this poem. Though his time in combat has passed the patriot
remembers. Not only the difficulties in the moments spent over overseas but also those
difficulties that never leave "Rubbings / From polished black stone.” I still cry at when I
hear the national anthem played for these same reasons and I hope that a reader who hasn’t had
to experience combat can understand why Clayton Beauchamp and myself still do.”
As for me, your humble Chair of this contest, I’m looking forward to what the 2024 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest has in store!
I can’t wait to read your amazing poems.That’s a wrap, folks!
The 2022 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest Results
The 2022 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest
There were 198 entries received from all over the United States , with $ 396.00 collected from entry fees.
Entries were received from all over the country, with poems coming in from Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The poems of this contest continue to give me hope, even in these trying times we now found ourselves.
Winners and Honorable Mentions were:
● 1 st / “ Black Crepe ” by Nancy Beauregard ( Santa Fe, NM )
● 2 nd / “ Nivôse ” by Erica Reid ( Fort Collins, CO )
● 3 rd / “ Disappearing ” by Mandie Hines ( Cheyenne , WY)
● Honorable Mention/ “ The Convergence of Two Rivers at the Continental Divide ” by Sheryl Lain ( Cheynne , WY)
● Honorable Mention/ “ Uncle Melvin Irrigates ” by Sheryl Lain ( Cheyenne, WY )
● Honorable Mention/ “ Everything Speaks ” by Victor Klimoski ( Saint Paul , MN )
● Honorable Mention/ “ The Bachelor Herd ” by Maureen Tolman Flannery ( Evanston , IL )
● Honorable Mention “ The Snow’s Frayed Edges Finger No Sun ” by Carol L. Deering ( Riverton , WY)
It was with pleasure that I handed over this year’s fantastic poetry to the judge for the 2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, David Anthony Martin .
David Anthony Martin is an environmental educator, poet, writer, columnist, and author of four collections of poetry, Span, Deepening the Map. Bijoux and The Ground Nest . He lives in the ponderosa pine and fir forested foothills of the Wet Mountains in southern Colorado. He is the founder and editor of Middle Creek Publishing & Audio.
“Thank you for the opportunity to just get this contest. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it might be,” stated David. “I hope that the announcement gives these poets the encouragement to continue their work and to ever hone their craft through time, and to never stop experiencing the world and responding to it through writing.”
David also had a lot to say about the winners of this year's contest:
“Black Crepe”
“The narrative quality of this poem richly moves the reader through the miasma of feeling, memory, emotion and realizations of a mourner at a funeral. The language is rich, and although it is in a prosaic form, it’s use of phrasing and creates a subtle dispelling of timelines, chronology, and lends a pacing and a careful dissemination of information through the structuring of the images to build an understanding of a whole experience that could, perhaps be
summed up in no other way.”
“Nivôse”
“This poem uses an exploration of freshly fallen snow and its variations in its form, the subtlety of colors and effect of it on the environment to communicate the duality of the moment. “It is not what snow covers, but what it illuminates:'' This new snow, this new moment, this new day, affected by a phenomenon that at once seems to cover and coat with a coldness and harshness, also reveals the glory and beauty of the forms around, opportunity for new experience, and for an erasure of what has come before. There is forgiveness in this poem, an un-spoiling, a hint at the flow of something unseen, and an unmarred future. This shift in perspective opens the reader to be encouraged to look for the potential forward, to the future
which, although unwritten, may be.”
“Disappearing”
“Very well crafted and concise, this poem is just the right length and form, short and yet containing much more folded into its interiority. The reader finds themselves unfolding the poem, as well as feeling as though they were as well folding it to reveal an understandable form as one does with a small square of paper in the practice of origami. Here we fold portions away, tucking them into others, and in doing so perhaps, create small forms of beauty in and of our lives. Through this work, we transform, we create wings. We crease and fold and press what we find in this world, and in doing so, we make sense of it, we create something new of it, we lend it meaning.”
I am filled with gratitude toward David Anthony Martin, for judging this year’s contest and for his outstanding insights. As for me, Chair of the Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, I am awed and thankful at the poetic voices that entered this contest. I’m so excited to see the entries that come in with the 2023 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest.
There were 198 entries received from all over the United States , with $ 396.00 collected from entry fees.
Entries were received from all over the country, with poems coming in from Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The poems of this contest continue to give me hope, even in these trying times we now found ourselves.
Winners and Honorable Mentions were:
● 1 st / “ Black Crepe ” by Nancy Beauregard ( Santa Fe, NM )
● 2 nd / “ Nivôse ” by Erica Reid ( Fort Collins, CO )
● 3 rd / “ Disappearing ” by Mandie Hines ( Cheyenne , WY)
● Honorable Mention/ “ The Convergence of Two Rivers at the Continental Divide ” by Sheryl Lain ( Cheynne , WY)
● Honorable Mention/ “ Uncle Melvin Irrigates ” by Sheryl Lain ( Cheyenne, WY )
● Honorable Mention/ “ Everything Speaks ” by Victor Klimoski ( Saint Paul , MN )
● Honorable Mention/ “ The Bachelor Herd ” by Maureen Tolman Flannery ( Evanston , IL )
● Honorable Mention “ The Snow’s Frayed Edges Finger No Sun ” by Carol L. Deering ( Riverton , WY)
It was with pleasure that I handed over this year’s fantastic poetry to the judge for the 2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, David Anthony Martin .
David Anthony Martin is an environmental educator, poet, writer, columnist, and author of four collections of poetry, Span, Deepening the Map. Bijoux and The Ground Nest . He lives in the ponderosa pine and fir forested foothills of the Wet Mountains in southern Colorado. He is the founder and editor of Middle Creek Publishing & Audio.
“Thank you for the opportunity to just get this contest. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it might be,” stated David. “I hope that the announcement gives these poets the encouragement to continue their work and to ever hone their craft through time, and to never stop experiencing the world and responding to it through writing.”
David also had a lot to say about the winners of this year's contest:
“Black Crepe”
“The narrative quality of this poem richly moves the reader through the miasma of feeling, memory, emotion and realizations of a mourner at a funeral. The language is rich, and although it is in a prosaic form, it’s use of phrasing and creates a subtle dispelling of timelines, chronology, and lends a pacing and a careful dissemination of information through the structuring of the images to build an understanding of a whole experience that could, perhaps be
summed up in no other way.”
“Nivôse”
“This poem uses an exploration of freshly fallen snow and its variations in its form, the subtlety of colors and effect of it on the environment to communicate the duality of the moment. “It is not what snow covers, but what it illuminates:'' This new snow, this new moment, this new day, affected by a phenomenon that at once seems to cover and coat with a coldness and harshness, also reveals the glory and beauty of the forms around, opportunity for new experience, and for an erasure of what has come before. There is forgiveness in this poem, an un-spoiling, a hint at the flow of something unseen, and an unmarred future. This shift in perspective opens the reader to be encouraged to look for the potential forward, to the future
which, although unwritten, may be.”
“Disappearing”
“Very well crafted and concise, this poem is just the right length and form, short and yet containing much more folded into its interiority. The reader finds themselves unfolding the poem, as well as feeling as though they were as well folding it to reveal an understandable form as one does with a small square of paper in the practice of origami. Here we fold portions away, tucking them into others, and in doing so perhaps, create small forms of beauty in and of our lives. Through this work, we transform, we create wings. We crease and fold and press what we find in this world, and in doing so, we make sense of it, we create something new of it, we lend it meaning.”
I am filled with gratitude toward David Anthony Martin, for judging this year’s contest and for his outstanding insights. As for me, Chair of the Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, I am awed and thankful at the poetic voices that entered this contest. I’m so excited to see the entries that come in with the 2023 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest.
2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest Winners
By Nicholas Trandahl, Contest Chair
What a contest! The 2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest is in the books, folks. The winners have been notified and checks have been sent out. The entries in this contest were such a thrill to read. There were 239 entries received from all over the country, with $504.00 collected from entry fees and donations.
Winners and Honorable Mentions were:
Entries were received from all over the varied expanse of the United States, with poems coming in from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. It was truly a pleasure to read through these amazing poems. Like wildflowers, they bloomed beautifully from this uncertain time of a pandemic and polarization, giving me hope. It was with pleasure that I handed over this year’s stunning poetry to the judge for the 2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, Vanessa Able.
Vanessa Able is a writer and editor who started her career as the editor-in-chief of Time Out Istanbul and went on to be a contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, as well as an associate editor at Esquire Latinoamerica in Mexico City. Her first book, Never Mind the Bullocks, was named a Scotsman Book of the Year. Vanessa is the founder and editor of The Dewdrop (www.thedewdrop.org), a literary platform dedicated to reading, writing and being.
As for me, Chair of the Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, I am filled with so much gratitude and wonder at the diverse poetic voices that entered this contest, and I am so excited to see the entries that came in with the 2022 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest.
What a contest! The 2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest is in the books, folks. The winners have been notified and checks have been sent out. The entries in this contest were such a thrill to read. There were 239 entries received from all over the country, with $504.00 collected from entry fees and donations.
Winners and Honorable Mentions were:
- 1st/ “Onion Snow” by Christopher James (Gloversville, NY)
- 2nd/ “The Prodigal Daughter and an Angel With a Lip Ring” by Lyndi Waters (Kaycee, WY)
- 3rd/ “Arpan Hardpan” by Diana Swartz (Gillette, WY)
- Honorable Mention/ “Letters From Jail” by Clair McFarland (Riverton, WY)
- Honorable Mention/ “Rings” by C.A. Lozier (Bar Mills, ME)
- Honorable Mention/ “Pellicer Creek” by Reatha Thomas Oakley (Gillette, WY)
- Honorable Mention/ “Lost & Looking For Fulton Canyon” by Carol L. Deering (Riverton, WY)
- Honorable Mention “Nonbreeding (Scarce)” by Diana Swartz (Gillette, WY)
Entries were received from all over the varied expanse of the United States, with poems coming in from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. It was truly a pleasure to read through these amazing poems. Like wildflowers, they bloomed beautifully from this uncertain time of a pandemic and polarization, giving me hope. It was with pleasure that I handed over this year’s stunning poetry to the judge for the 2021 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, Vanessa Able.
Vanessa Able is a writer and editor who started her career as the editor-in-chief of Time Out Istanbul and went on to be a contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, as well as an associate editor at Esquire Latinoamerica in Mexico City. Her first book, Never Mind the Bullocks, was named a Scotsman Book of the Year. Vanessa is the founder and editor of The Dewdrop (www.thedewdrop.org), a literary platform dedicated to reading, writing and being.
As for me, Chair of the Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest, I am filled with so much gratitude and wonder at the diverse poetic voices that entered this contest, and I am so excited to see the entries that came in with the 2022 Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest.
About the Eugene V. Shea National Poetry Contest
Eugene V. Shea (1925-2016)
This contest is named in honor of the late Eugene V. Shea, a longtime member of WyoPoets. Eugene was a prolific writer who was beloved by many in WyoPoets. He ran the organization's national contest for many years, and his dedication to the written word, to encouraging other writers, and to WyoPoets will forever be appreciated.
The contest takes place each fall.
The contest takes place each fall.
