Quarter Finalists for the 2014 Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize are here

The size of our contest has grown immensely each year. For this, our third Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize, we have selected 161 quarter finalists.

In the next phase, we will narrow this field to about 30 semifinalists to be announced on August 31. Absolutely keep your simultaneous submissions active during this time, but do let us know if you are accepted elsewhere and need to withdraw. (Two poets got their chapbooks accepted by other publishing companies during the process. Congratulations!)

We will also be talking to our celebrity poet about the timing of judging the finalists, so we can have a rough idea of when we will have a winner this year. We can't wait to tell you about our final judge for the 2014 prize. We've had some wonderful accomplished poets judge our finalists in the past -- Jay Parini and Fred Marchant!

Congratulations poets, and please, if we made an error in your title or name, or you would like us to go ahead and switch to your pseudonym, reply to the email you received when we confirmed your original submission to let us know.

And here they are!

64 Blue Letters -- Constance Alexander
A Benign Sort of Cannibalism -- Lisa Haag Kang
A Liar and a Thief: Robert Rauschenberg Poems --  Jessy Randall
A Poet's Spiritual Walk with Nature -- Steven Jacobson
A Report on Love and Wrestling -- Jeff Tigchelaar
A Woman Passing -- Ruth Holzer
After Midnight -- Gloria MacKay
Aging Space -- Christine Adler
All Roads Lead There -- Kate Hutchinson
All-Nighter -- Anna Rose Gellert
American Ark -- Dante Di Stefano
Angels Kept Her Feet --Randy Michael Robinson
Anthems for a Sixteen Year Old Girl -- Emily Marquis
Any Old Truth -- Leah Miranda Hughes
Apostrophes -- Katie Darby Mullins
Arrows from Bone -- Lisa Cheby
As the Metal Sun Rises -- Kelsey Nicole Lueptow
At night in the room with others -- Lesley Constable
At the Clothesline -- Marjorie Power
Between X and Y -- Elizabeth Rees
Beyond Confusion -- Jane Blanchard
Black Holes of Genocide -- Mimi Harriet Uwineza
Breathing Spaces -- Carmela Co
Brief Cycles -- Maude Larke
Bright Lives Broken -- Ace Baker
Carcinoma Variations -- Jesse Minkert
Charismata Canticle -- W.F. Lantry
Chasing Zero -- Christina M. Rau
Country of Mourning and Awakening -- Annie Dawid
Cracks -- Jane Ellen Glasser
Dawn of My Talent -- Joshua John Chirambwe
Dearest Maxwell -- Zoya Gurm
Defying Gravity -- Sherilyn Lee
Desire for Pulse -- Susan Azar Porterfield
Double Chai -- Erika Dreifus
Eden -- Jennifer Highland
Escape to Cyberspace -- Gary Beck
Evelyn -- Leah Sewell
Everyday Love -- Peggy Trojan
Female, 18-24 -- Cassandra Baliga
Floating over India -- Nancy Goodrich
Flux Lines -- John C.  Mannone
Gift Snake -- Nina Forsythe
Grace Notes -- Jane Ebihara
Half-Hidden -- Diandre Prendimano
Halfway Ever After -- Katherine A. Roche
Heart of Wisdom -- Jacqueline Seewald
Homesick Everywhere -- Robin Amelia Morris
Horseflesh -- Amberle L. Husbands
Hot Gods -- Wendy Taylor Carlisle
How Are You Liking the Scenery -- Janet Barry
I took Goliath home -- Lungile Msimanga
If My Father -- T. Stores
if you're a humming bird -- M.K. Sukach
In a Lonely Place -- Mark Liam Piggott
In Love's Garden -- Elya Braden
In Response to Cancer -- Andora Henson
Independent City -- Jennifer Tappenden
Insufficient Cohesion -- Corey Ginsberg
International Trapeze Act of Fire -- Jen Karetnick
Kingdoms in a Foot of Ground -- Alexandra Fresch
Last Night of Maskmaking -- Carolyn Moore
Lessons in Ruin -- Justin Hamm
Letters to War and Lethe -- Farzana Marie
Life Stages, Love Stages -- Deborah Darby
Life's Epiphanies -- Angela E. Sarumi
Little House, Little Song -- Lauren Gordon
little, kansas -- Sea Sharp
Looking Back -- Tamika Wright
Love Tooth -- Brenda Yates
Man Overboard -- David Denny
Men and Myths -- Savannah Thorne
Messiah Auditions Saturday -- Nancy Devine
Midwest Science and Poetry Through a Family -- Joyce Frohn
Mirage -- RJ Clarken
Modern Farming and Other Changes -- Steve Broidy
Mother -- Mary Stone Dockery
Murdering My Darlings -- Cathy Bryant
Music from a Farther Room -- Barbra Nightingale
My Son Writes a Report on the Warsaw Ghetto -- Steve Klepetar
Negative Splits -- Jennifer Marshall Lagedrost
Nekyia -- Michael Collins
Night Putting -- Joe Hess
Not At All What I Had Expected -- Robin Kalinich
Nowhere Near Morning -- Jeff Bernstein
Old News: The Bond Between My Father and Me -- Eva M. Schlesinger
Other Women's Voices -- Karin L. Frank
Pains and Pleasures of the Kanoli Bank -- Fabiyas MV
Pioneer Children -- Tracey S. Rosenberg
Play -- Jo Angela Edwins
Poetry -- Modester Okafor
Precipice Fruit -- Sara Biggs Chaney
Pregnant Pause -- Desiree Miller
Pulchritude in All Directions -- Don Shook
Rags and Riches of the Soul -- Chantelle Suzuki
Recapitulation -- Rohan Chhetri
Ripe -- by Gina Marie Mammano
Ruina Montium -- Jeremy Dae Paden
Saints, Hymns, and Slanted Miracles -- Teresa Milbrodt
Sandringham Beach -- Gary Devilles
Sawing a Lady in Half -- Lee Schwartz
Saying and Telling -- Janet Cannon
Sea Change -- Carol Smallwood
Seasons of the Keeper -- Cliff Gale
Seven Myths -- Nate Maxon
Seventy-Four Reasons to Visit the Everglades -- Diana Woodcock
Silence and Dreams -- Michael Campagnoli
Sixes and Sevens -- Bonnie J. Morris
Skeletons in the Closet -- Mara Ferguson
sketches and snapshots -- Cynthia Baculi-Condez
Slick -- Rebecca Aronson
Small Hill in a Deep Valley -- Chris Farrell
Sometimes You See the Cracks -- Edward Palumbo
Spectrum -- Darrell Lindsey
Spirited Soul -- Neelam Saxena Chandra
Splitting the Velvet Dark -- Elaine Mott
Spyre -- Jeanine Deibel
Step Touch Back Step -- Heidi Rosenberg
Stitches -- Lauren Payne
Subterranean -- Lisa Alexander Baron
Taming Butterflies -- Eileen Rosensteel
Teachings of the Wild Mushroom -- Monika John
That Orangutan Can Sing the Blues -- Alvaro Salinas, Jr.
The Beckett Girl -- Mercedes Lawry
The Book of Nin -- Joseph Kayne
The Crone at the Cathedral -- Janet McCann
The Deluge -- Su Cho
The Edge of Death -- Thea Iberall
The Edge of Never -- Martin Willitts, Jr.
The Eighth Phrase -- Lisa Williams
The fall of Girl -- Katherine Hoerth
The First Arts -- Tom Holmes
The Flash before the Shadow -- George Such
The Host -- Meg Eden
The Ignited Soul -- Dawnell Harrison
The Intimacy Archive -- Leigh Anne Hornfeldt
The Last -- M.E. Silverman
The Late, Late Show -- Helen Ruggieri
The Little Blue Hut -- Nancy Charley
The Notion of Wings -- Sally Albiso
The Queen of Flight -- Denise Grier
The Silences Between -- Judith Kelly Quaempts
The Small Stays We Work -- Diane Kendig
The Stairs -- Betty Lipton
The Starving Artist and Other Poems by Michael Nicholson
The Waiting Room -- Christine Strevinsky
The Window that Faces South -- Lissav Saksuor
The Year the World Ended…Not -- Walter Ruhlmann
Transport -- Jacob Russell
Tricks of Light -- Issa Lewis
Under-Spoken Odes -- Margaret Rozga
Undreaming Babylon -- Susan DeFreitas
Vermilion Mile -- Jenna Kilic
We Walk Together -- Donna Marie Merritt
What I'm Wearing Today -- Marion Deutsche Cohen
What makes the dawn come up like thunder -- Alex Stolis
What Remains -- Andrena Zawinski
When God Sleeps -- Damara Martin
Where Jewish Grandmothers Come From -- Debra Winegarten
Where the Meadowlark Sings -- Ellaraine Lockie
With This Ring -- Allie Marini Batts
Write of Divorce -- Joan Canby
Zing: Poems of Movement -- Shauna Osborn