Karla Kelsey Wins Sawtooth Poetry Prize

Karla Kelsey, a poet from Denver, Colo., is the 2005 winner of Sawtooth Poetry Prize. The $1,500 Sawtooth Prize is given annually by Ahsahta Press, Boise State University’s poetry press.

Kelsey’s manuscript, Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary, will be published by Ahsahta in January. Carolyn ForchÈ of George Mason University was the judge. Heidi Lynn Staples’ Dog Girl was the runner-up, and also will be published by Ahsahta.

Ahsahta received 580 entries for this year’s competition, an increase of more than 10 percent over last year’s submissions.

“Each year the quality of the entries gets better,” Janet Holmes, director of the press, said. “That makes the decisions that much more difficult.”

Manuscripts submitted to the contest were logged and all identifying materials were removed. At least two of the graduate students in Holmes’ MFA course in small press publishing read each manuscript before it was passed on to Holmes, who also read it. Of the 580, 43 were named semifinalists. The class, which served as Ahsahta’s editorial board, then read all 43 manuscripts and decided how many would be forwarded to the final judge.

This year, 20 were forwarded to ForchÈ. One manuscript received a prize in a different contest and was withdrawn during judging; a manuscript is deemed ineligible if it has received a prize previously. Kelsey’s winning book will be sent to each entrant when it is published.

Next year’s Sawtooth Poetry Prize contest will be held between Jan. 1 and March 1 and judged by National Book Critic’s Circle Award nominee D.A. Powell, author of Cocktails, published by Graywolf press.

Knowledge, Forms, the Aviary marks the fourth winner of the Sawtooth Poetry Prize at Boise State’s Ahsahta Press. Ahsahta, Mandan for “Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep,” has produced volumes by previous award winners Aaron McCollough, Graham Foust and Noah Eli Gordon, as well as 65 additional books of poetry.

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Contact: Janet Holmes, English Department, (208) 426-2195, jholmes@boisestate.edu†

Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Relations, (208) 426-5540, juliehahn@boisestate.edu

Online: http://news.boisestate.edu