Mary Makofske Wins 2010 Richard Snyder Poetry Prize

Congratulations are due for Mary Makofske, winner of the 2010 Richard Snyder Poetry Publication Prize!  David Wojahn selected Makofske’s manuscript from 19 finalists.  The finalists were chosen by Deborah Fleming, editor of APP, out of 375 manuscripts. 

David Wojahn had this to say about Makofske’s book, Traction: “There is a quiet self-possession and maturity of vision in this volume that characterizes all of its poems; yet at the same time they range widely, addressing subjects as various as Neolithic burials, Whitman’s career as a Civil War nurse, the physiology of cetaceans, and a sexually repressed Muslim’s stealthy visit to an adult bookstore. Yet the author is also capable of writing sly accounts of family history and a Cold War childhood that seem archetypal rather than generic, that show evidence of a strong social conscience that never devolves to cant. Traction is an altogether impressive book of great tonal and formal range.”

Traction will be published by the Ashland Poetry Press in the fall of 2011.

Mary Makofske, assistant professor of English at Orange County (NY) Community College, is the author of a full length collection of poetry, The Disappearance of Gargoyles (Thorntree Press, 1988) and Eating Nasturtiums (winner of the 1998 Flume Press Chapbook Competition). She is the recipient of the Robert Penn Warren Poetry Prize, the Lullwater Review Poetry Prize, and the Spoon River Review Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, Mississippi Review, North American Review, and other magazines.

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