Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry
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Winner: Donna Levine Gershon’s poetry has appeared in storySouth, qarrtsiluni, Literary Mama, and Kakalak: Anthology of Carolina Poets, among other publications. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she works as a freelance editor.
Judge Kristin Robertson’s comments on Donna Levine Gershon’s poetry: The voice in this submission cannot be contained by a financial portfolio, a last will and testament, a house, a given name, or even a body. In the poem “To the Person Who Stole My Identity,” the speaker reminds them: “You also get the temperamental skin, / the cantankerous hair.” This collection grapples with identity—“How many times have I asked, Who am I?”—even comparing themselves to an insatiable storm in the poem “Hurricane Namesake”: “Don’t you know I can barely breathe / without the wind in my hungry hair?” The rebellious streak here echoes the work of Kim Addonizio; the poems are intimate without apology: “The more you ride / with the wind in your hair / when his top is down, / the more you throw / caution to that wind.” This manuscript feels like an excerpt from a fierce and electric collection of poems—and I hope it is. I would read this book start to finish. |
Deadline: Ended March 20, 2025
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The Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry, supported by the Penelope Coker Hall/Eliza Wilson Ingle Fund of Central Carolina Community Foundation and sponsored by the South Carolina Academy of Authors, recognizes the talent of fiction poets in the state of South Carolina.
The award is $1,250 and an invitation to be honored at the SCAA Induction Ceremony. There is no restriction on form or content. Submit up to 5 unpublished poems (totaling no more than 10 pages). You may submit multiple entries, but each entry must be accompanied with entry fee. Entry fee is $20 per entry. We will accept entries in doc, docx, rtf, and pdf file formats. Applicants must be full-time residents of South Carolina and must not have won this fellowship (previously known as the Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship in Poetry) in the previous three years. Your name should not appear anywhere on the poems submitted. Include contact information in the appropriate fields along with a brief bio in the cover letter field on the submission manager. Be sure to click on the correct SC Academy of Authors submission link. This year’s final judge was Kristin Robertson. Questions about the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Fellowship in Poetry should be sent to: [email protected]. |
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Kristin Robertson is the author of Surgical Wing published by Alice James Books in 2017 and Chance of Lightning, winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry and forthcoming in April 2025 from the University of North Texas Press. Her poetry appears in Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, Harvard Review, The Southern Review, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review Online, Five Points, and many other journals. Kristin is an assistant professor of writing and literature at Mercer University and lives in Georgia.
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