Brainchild
I did this thing
The kind of thing
people have thought about
for ages
So I feel a bit embarrassed
calling it mine –
Actually
it’s yours.
from Small Sovereign
Last week I got an email from the Los Angeles Book Festival, telling me that they had made their decisions about their book competitions. I clicked on the link, half-hoping that maybe I had received an honorable mention for Small Sovereign, the book of poetry I entered.
I scrolled down past a few categories to Poetry, and my book and my name were listed at the top of the section as the winner. I blinked. Was this real? How could this be? I am still in partial disbelief, but acceptance and gratitude are gradually replacing my sense of shock.
Small Sovereign is my third book of poetry. On a whim I had submitted the manuscript to a non-profit publisher in California, Homestead Lighthouse Press, which had made a good impression on me partly because their name honors Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf. I had no great expectations. Homestead Lighthouse responded a few months later by accepting my manuscript, with the comment that they appreciated what I was trying to achieve in my poems.
Small Sovereign is divided into three sections. The first section speaks to contemporary issues and personal responsibility along with the accompanying hope and despair. The second section includes poems of relationship, how they do and don’t work, and why it is so difficult to fix the problems alluded to in section one. The last section interjects voices of creativity, failure and possibility, ending on the goal of “standing upright without apology.”
Working with Homestead Lighthouse was the first time I had dealt with a book designer. I find the cover we came up with reflects the sense of power and powerlessness inherent in the title, Small Sovereign, and I think this is a paradox which many readers relate to.
So, congratulations to Small Sovereign for winning its second contest. It also won Poetry Book of the Year 2021 from Golden Boar Book Awards. My appreciation goes out to the Los Angeles Book Festival, to Homestead Lighthouse Press, and to the poets and readers who have supported me on this journey.