2016 Louis Award Winner

The field of entries this year for the Louis Award was impressive. Our final judge enjoyed all the manuscripts she read and found it very challenging to select a winner. Our judge Anita K. Boyle has selected the Winner: John Martin age 64, of Bend, OR for his manuscript Hold This.

John Martin is a poet and journalist. His poems have appeared in The High Desert Journal, Cascades Reader, Cascades East, Manzanita Quarterly and America. In 2006, Iota Press published his poetry chapbook The Nick of Time. His poems have received awards from the Oregon State Poetry Association, and he has won some pocket change at poetry slams in Bend. John found a translucent arrowhead in the Sierra two summers ago. He has a very good recipe for Spamburgers and knows a surefire cure for the hiccups, if anyone’s interested.

ALL NIGHT THE WIND BLEW
like a hungry ocean at my back,
blew so hard the roof timbers creaked.
It whistled me awake from a dream where
I’d been trying to fall asleep but couldn’t because
of all the dogs barking, the racket that those birds made,
so I put a pillow over my head, thought I heard my father  
saying something but I couldn’t hear his words. All night
the wind blew, and the next morning a silent tongue
of snow had stuck itself through the crack
beneath the weary door.
        

With Woods in the Background
Thirst
How Clean the Seed Becomes
Bistro in Another Realm

What You Saw and Still Remember
In the Temple of Shining Mercy
The Light That Dances in Everything
Proof of Life
Even at the End
Reconnaissance by Fire
Death, Dogs, Drugs and Desire
Tug

Catherine Moore
Harry Moore
Carol Nolde
Ann Pelletier
Doug Smith
Dennis Trujillo
Connie K. Walle