So, after my recent lament regarding poetry book contests, I learned today that one of my poetry chapbook manuscripts was a finalist for the Editor’s Prize at Seven Kitchen’s Press, and another reached semi-finalist status in the same contest! It was really lovely to get that news, of course. It always feels great to be affirmed.

Does this change my thinking about the problem of contests? No, it really doesn’t. Those submissions were part of last year’s last hurrah. I’m still in a self-imposed submission moratorium, still trying to work out what I want and how to go about getting it.

What it does do, though, is make me feel like writing more poems and that’s a very good feeling indeed.