Meet the judges!

 

I didn't want to be selecting the poems for the 40 Over 40 anthology (submit here!) myself and turn this into a collection of my personal favorite things. It was important to me to assemble a judging panel of brilliant, talented poets with different styles to help compile a great collection. It was also important to me to make sure that we had a blind judging process.

I could not be more excited that all three of these individuals wanted to be part of this project. Below, get to know a little about them and--most importantly if you're submitting--what they look for when reading poems.

 

Michelle R. Smith is a writer, poet, educator, cultural facilitator, and native Clevelander. She is the Programming Director for Literary Cleveland. She is the author of the poetry collections Ariel in Black (2015) and The Vagina Analogues (2020). She has been published in The Normal School, The Gasconade Review, New Note Poetry, Merge Magazine, and io Literary Magazine.

Michelle says: "I appreciate soul, song, story, sensory detail, and spareness in poetry. I like emotionality, elegance, intelligence, and craftsmanship."
 
 
Shaneen Harris’s works include Reflections of My Thoughts: I used to believe in unicorns, and I still do, Because God Said So, and Simply Complex (spoken word CD). Her poem “Clergy Woman Eats Her Shadow” was a finalist in the Wolverine Farm Broadside Poetry Prize. Her writings have appeared in Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine, Rubbertop Review, Crab Orchard Review: Ka-Ching the Money Issue, Watershed Review, Rattle, and the Tampa Review. She served as host of Poetry Unchained and TBN’s Joy in Our Town and Co-Editor of When There Are Nine. Shaneen’s married and the proud momma of three adult children.

Shaneen says what she looks for in poetry is "the poem's ability to make me believe that it is the originator. For instance, if it’s a poem about love, it’s written in a way that is a fresh perspective. I also look at the word choice and flow of the poem. More complexity isn’t always deeper on meaning. Did the last word of a line make me want to read the next one?"

 

 

Steve Brightman lives in Akron OH. His most recent full-length collection of poems, The Circus of His Bones (Kung Fu Treachery Press), is a pandemic baby, birthed in 2020. Other collections of his include The Wild Gospel of Careening and Other Tales from the Rumble Strip, Leaving the Flatlands to the Amateurs, In Brilliant Explosions Alone, and 13 Ways of Looking at Lou Reed.
 

When asked what he looks for in a poem, Steve says:

"It’s a short list, but a big ask.

1) I want to see the specific in a universal way

2) I want to see the universal in a specific way

3) I want to see the world reflected back to me or revealed to me in a way I haven’t yet seen"

 

Now that you've met the judges, plan your submissions and send them in before April 30th!
Submit here!

Peace,
T