2021 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The Poetry Center at PCCC is pleased to announce the 2021 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE winners in three grade levels.

Grade Pre K - 3

Anica Mrose Rissi, Love, Sophia on the Moon (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, NY)

Mariana Llanos, Eunice and Kate (Penny Candy Books, Oklahoma City, OK)

Grade 4 - 6

Diane Worthey, In One Ear & Out The Other (Penny Candy Books, Oklahoma City, OK)

Joseph Bruchac, The Powwow Dog (Reycraft Books, New York, NY)

Grade 7 - 12

Beth Kephart, Cloud Hopper (Penelope Editions, Oklahoma City, OK)

Anna K. Scotti, Big & Bad (Texas Review Press, Huntsville, TX)

DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE

2020 Paterson Prize Books for Young People Winners

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s
Paterson Prize Books for Young People.

Grade K-3 Winner

Diana de Anda for Mango Moon (Albert Whitman & Co., Chicago, IL)

Grade 4-6 Winner

Padma Venkatraman for The Bridge Home (Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, New York, NY)

Grade 7-12 Winner

Torran Anderson for Piñata Moon (Look Out Behind You Books, Tucson, AZ)


Honor Books

Bailey Sisoy Isgro - Rosie, A Detroit Herstory (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI)

Lee Bennett Hopkins - I Am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending (Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc., Watertown, MA)

Deborah Hopkinson - Carter Reads the Newspaper (Peach Tree Publishing Company, Atlanta, GA)

Michael Bronski - A Queer History of the United States for Young People (Beacon Press, Boston, MA) 

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for Young People (Beacon Press, Boston, MA)

C.J Farley - Around Harvard Square (Akashic Books, Brooklyn, NY)

For information about this prize, see the Poetry Center’s Contest & Awards page

2020 Paterson Poetry Prize Winner & Finalists

2020 Paterson Poetry Prize Winner & Finalists

Winner: Jericho Brown
for his poetry collection,
The Tradition
(Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA)

Finalists

Reginald Dwayne Betts, Felon (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)

Carrie Conners, Luscious Struggle (BrickHouse Books, Inc., Baltimore, MD)

W. D. Ehrhart, Thank You for your Service: Collected Poems (McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC)

Martin Jude Farawell, Odd Boy (Sibling Rivalry Press, Little Rock, AK)

Dorianne Laux, Only As the Day Is Long: New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton & Company, NY) 1

Vivian Shipley, An Archaeology of Days (Negative Capability Press, Mobile, AL)

Matthew Thorburn, The Grace of Distance: Poems (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA)

Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown

Poetry Center at PCCC Celebrates 40 Years

Founded in 1980, when Ms. Mazziotti Gillan was an adjunct instructor of English at PCCC, The Poetry Center had humble beginnings, but grew steadily, even attracting participation from the celebrated Allen Ginsberg, a one-time Patersonian who became the voice of the mid-20th century Beat Generation.

Today the Center hosts readings and workshops that draw presenters and attendees from all over the country, publishes the respected Paterson Literary Review, administers annual poetry contests, and fosters community outreach with programs such as Poetry in Prisons.

40thposter.JPG

The standing-room only crowd that gathered for the celebration is a testament to her influence.

One by one, speakers took the podium to tell their personal story of Ms. Mazziotti Gillan and the Center.

“Maria has done a fantastic job here,” said Dr. Steven Rose, president of PCCC. “Wherever I go, people tell me they’ve heard of The Poetry Center.”

Congressman Bill Pascrell, who was instrumental in locating PCCC in Paterson, recalled the earliest days of the Center. “I remember readings back in the 80’s when there were three people in the room, and I was one of them,” he said. Then he surprised the crowd by reading from two of his own poems.

Mark Hillringhouse, a fine-art photographer and frequent collaborator with Ms. Mazziotti Gillan, commended her achievement through metaphor. Gesturing toward a stunning photo he took of the Center, bright against the night sky, the retired PCCC professor said the design showed that against the city of Paterson, “the Poetry Center gives light and illuminates.”

Calling Ms. Mazziotti Gillan “a visionary,” fellow poet and workshop leader Laura Boss told of their travels together through Sicily, Paris, Wales and other locales where they performed readings and led workshops.

The program included readings of proclamations from state, county, and local officials. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy calls the Center “a beacon of the Passaic County community” and “a haven for artists to bloom and flourish.”

Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, hailed it as “an essential resource for the City of Paterson” that “offers working-class people and recent American immigrants a new way of looking at American life through literature, art, and culture.”

40invite413w.png

2019 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE WINNERS

sorrow.jpg
somerset.jpg
 

WINNERS OF THE 2019 PATERSON POETRY PRIZE

Daniel Donaghy, Somerset (NYQ Books, New York, NY)

“Donaghy writes brilliantly about growing up in a hard-scrabble neighborhood in Philadelphia,

and explores complexities of love and sorrow, shame and gratitude.”

Sean Thomas Dougherty, The Second O of Sorrow (BOA Editions, Ltd., Rochester, NY)

“In this amazing, tender, passionate book, Dougherty peels back all the self-protective shields

under which he has hidden truths even from himself, and lets the reader experience all the

people who inhabit his world. In so doing, he reveals his own vulnerability.”

— Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Executive Director, The Poetry Center

FINALISTS

  • Suzanne Cleary, Crude Angel: Poems (BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO)

  • Matthew Dickman, Wonderland: Poems (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)

  • Chanda Feldman, Approaching the Fields: Poems (LSU Press, Baton Rouge, LA)

  • Maria Giura, What My Father Taught Me (Bordighera Press, New York, NY)

  • Allison Joseph, Confessions of a Barefaced Woman (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA)

  • Michael Lally, another way to play: poems 1960 – 2017 (Seven Stories Press, New York, NY)

  • January Gill O’Neil, Rewilding (CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ)

  • Danny Shot, Works (CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ)

The Paterson Poetry Prize of $1,000 is given annually by the Poetry Center to a book of poetry (48 pages or more) published in the previous year. Submission deadline is February 1, 2020.

2019 WINNERS of the PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

2019 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Grade Pre K - 3 Winner: Kathleen Contreras for Harvesting Friends (Arte Publico Press, Houston, TX)

Grade 4 - 6 Winner: Elizabeth Van Steenwyk for Blacksmith’s Song (Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA)

Grade 7 - 12 Winner: Daniel Acosta for Iron River (Cinco Puntos Press, El Paso, TX)

HONOR BOOKS

Lester L. Laminack, The King of the Bees (Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA)

Patricia Hruby Powell, Struttin’ With Some Barbeque (Charlesbridge, Watertown, MA)

Ronald Kidd, Lord of the Mountain (Albert Whitman & Co., Park Ridge, IL)

For 2020 rules and application, visit www.poetrycenterpccc.com/awards/ or for more info, write to sdesai@pccc.edu.

2018 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

2018 PATERSON PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Grades Pre-K – 3 Winner
Lori Haskins Houran, Warts and All (Albert Whitman & Company, Chicago, IL)

Grades 4 – 6 Winner
Ruth Freeman, One Good Thing About America (Holiday House, New York, NY)

Grades 7 – 12 Winner
Mariko Tatsumoto, Gutless (Ichiban Books, Pagosa Springs, CO)


HONOR BOOKS

Grades Pre-K – 3
Gretchen Brandenburg McLellan, Mrs. McBee Leaves Room 3 (Peachtree, Atlanta, GA)
Larissa M. Mercado-López, Esteban de Luna, Baby Rescuer! (Arte Público Press, Houston, TX)
Barbara Nye, Somewhere A Bell Is Ringing (Penny Candy Books, Oklahoma City, OK)

Grades 4 – 6
Alison Hart, Leo, Dog of the Sea (Peachtree, Atlanta, GA)
Edward van de Vendel, Sam in Winter (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Grand Rapids, MI)
Ellen Wittlinger, Saturdays with Hitchcock (Charlesbridge, Watertown, MA)

Grades 7 – 12
Michael Currinder, Running Full Tilt (Charlesbridge, Watertown, MA)
Seth Michelson, Dreaming America (Settlement House Books, Silver Spring, MD)
Donovan Mixon, Ahgottahandleonit (Cinco Puntos Press, El Paso TX)

THE 2018 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS

THE 2018 ALLEN GINSBERG POETRY AWARDS

FIRST PRIZE
Jim Reese, Yankton, SD “Dancing Room Only”
SECOND PRIZE
Maria Fama, Philadelphia, PA “Cu Tantu Si Cala ‘U Culu Si Para”
THIRD PRIZE
Lorraine Conlin, Wantagh, NY “New Suit”

HONORABLE MENTION
Howard Berelson, Teaneck, NJ “My Father was a piece of paper”
R. Bremner, Glen Ridge, NJ “She wore a raspberry beret”
Shane Carreon, Binghamton, NY “Knock on wood”
David Crews, Warren, NJ “Sitting on the Floor at Poets House”
Anthony DeGregorio, Kent Lakes, NY “Poem”
Gil Fagiani, Long Island City, NY “Veal Cutlets”
Christopher Fahy, Thomaston, ME “The Limits of Song”
Mary Fitzpatrick, Pasadena, CA “Marie Josephine Dallaire, Ottawa, 1874”
Christie Grimes, Sackets Harbor, NY “Six months later”
James D. Gwyn, Clifton, NJ “Elvis Hair”
Josh Humphrey, Kearny, NJ “The Sweet Carpenter”
Frances Lombardi-Grahl, Clifton, NJ “Inheritance”
Nancy Lubarsky, Cranford, NJ “Vacation Bible School”
Francesca Maxime, Brooklyn, NY “The Man on the Train”
Greg Moglia, Huntington, NY “When I Was Young and Mother Wasn't Old”
Marilyn Mohr, West Orange, NJ “Convoy Number 34”
Gloria G. Murray, Deer Park, NY “My Sister Changed Her Name”
Rachelle M. Parker, Montclair, NJ “Momma's Eyes Are Half Full With Sadness
and I Will Have to Tell Her One Day When I Can Speak, How I Waited”
Jennifer Poteet, Montclair, NJ “Yuletide, 1976”
Natasha Rabin, Nyack, NY “Back to the Future”
Bernadette Roe, Endicott, NY “Family Secrets”
Edwin Romond, Wind Gap, PA “Night Sounds”
Arthur Russell, Nutley, NJ “The Heavier Stone”
Donna Baier Stein, Bernardsville, NJ “My Father in Pictures”
Maxine Susman, Princeton, NJ “What's Left”
Eileen Van Hook, Wanaque, NJ “Old Ladies”
Sherida Yoder, North Haledon, NJ “Physical Education”
Neal Zirn, Denver, CO “Your Eyes”

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Charles W. Brice, Pittsburgh, PA “Deal Me In”
Judith A. Brice, Pittsburgh, PA “The Circle Closes”
Okey Chenoweth, Oakland, NJ “The Rain Has Never Been to School”
Linda Nemec Foster, Grand Rapids, MI “Memories of an Immigrant Childhood”
Deborah Gerrish, Murray Hill, NJ “A Secret Correspondence”
Annie Lanzillotto, Yonkers, NY “Three Italians on The Block”
Antoinette Libro, Sea Isle City, NJ “Imagining America”
Maria Lisella, Long Island City, NY “Couple on the curb”
Frank Niccoletti, West Orange, NJ “My Watch In a Sow's Ear”
Christine Redman-Waldeyer, Manasquan, NJ “Napkins and Chinatown”
Kenneth Silvestri, Nyack, NY “When my now adult children were young”
Al Tacconelli, Wynnewood, PA “Objects of Memories”
Bob Ward, Brooklyn, NY “I Will Be Grateful”

Jan Beatty is the 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize Winner

The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College is pleased to announce that the 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize winner is Jan Beatty for her book, Jackknife: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA). 

"Jackknife is a book that secures Jan’s place in American literature
as one of the fiercest and bravest poets writing today." — Maria Mazziotti Gillan

FINALISTS
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, Arrival: Poems (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL)
Jim Daniels, Rowing Inland (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI)
Judy Grahn, Hanging on Our Own Bones (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA)
Nicole Homer, Pecking Order (Write Bloody Publishing, Los Angeles, CA)
Christine Kitano, Sky Country (BOA Editions, Ltd., Rochester, NY)
Meghan O’Rourke, Sun in Days (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, NY)
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, The Last Cigarette on Earth (Cinco Puntos Press, El Paso, TX)
Cindy Veach, Gloved Against Blood (CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ)

The Paterson Poetry Prize of $1,000 is given annually by the Poetry Center to a book of poetry (48 pages or more) published in the previous year.

The submission deadline for books published in 2018 is February 1, 2019. For 2019 award rules and application forms, visit www.poetrycenterpccc.com/awards/. For questions, contact sdesai@pccc.edu.

The Poetry Center was named a Distinguished Arts Project and awarded several Citations of Excellence, and is funded, in part, by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
 

Download a printable pdf winner’s flyer