Announcing the Quarter Finalists to the 2015 Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize

The size of our contest just keeps growing. For this, our fourth Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize, we have selected almost 200 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. (Four 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. It's always fun to hold on to the secret of who our final judge will be. We've had some wonderful ones -- Jay Parini, Fred Marchant, and Dorothea Lasky.

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!

500 Days ~ Iris Jamahl Dunkle

A Constant State of Falling ~ Meg Eden

A Wider Sky of Profound ~ Gina Marie Mammano

Ab.Sin.The ~ Melissa Holm

Aging with Attitude ~ Katharine Weeks Folkes

All of My Nothings ~ Ariel Triunfo

Along The Road ~ Paul Stansbury

American Bond ~ Nicole Parizeau

Anatomie of the World ~ Annie Dawid

Anticipation ~ Judith Kelly Quaempts

Apocalypse at the County Fair ~ Alyse Bensel

apostle songs ~ Carly Joy Miller

Appalachian Rhythm ~ Carolyn Faye Davis

Before Fire & Other Poems ~ Allie Marini Batts

Between the Lines ~ Hemant Bawankar

Boomerang Girl ~ Caitlin Johnson

Both Wave and Particle ~ Rafael S.W

Brick-woman ~ Andrew Koch

Cantos For Earth's Inhabitants ~ D.S. Martin

Children Born on the Wrong Side of the River ~ Sarah McCartt-Jackson

Citygrown ~ Karen Yuan

Clasp ~ Suzanne Richter

Concaves ~ Peter LaBerge

Dare ~ Savannah Thorne

Dark Hearts ~ Modester Okafor

Dead Skin and Salt Water ~ Amanda Silberling

Deniz ~ Shauna Barbosa

Diamond Life ~ Laura Taylor

Dinner for Two ~ Janet Cannon

dis-connect ~ Kellie Chouinard

Donating Organs in Boxes ~ David Walker

Eden Was Here ~ Shira Richman

Enveloped ~ Danielle Smith

Escaping the Nursing Home & Other Cleansings ~ Amanda Fuller

eve calling it a day ~ Steve LaVigne

Everything But the Sky ~ Meg Tuite/David Tomaloff

Everything's Better with Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Samantha LeVan

Faces of a Woman ~ Sharon Shelton Hanson

Falling and Flying ~ Julia Hones

Family Values ~ Edward Timothy

flowers bloom in frost ~ James Carter

Footage ~ Elaine Zimmerman

For the Flowerless Graves ~ Jeremiah Walton

Forget-Me-Nots ~ Heather M. Browne

From Darkness To Light ~ Robert Saari

From dawn to sunset ~ Horia Pop

From His SIde ~ M. Rather, Jr.

Geography of Ghosts ~ Deborah Chava Singer

Goods and Services ~ Laryssa Wirstiuk

Hanging Tight Aboard the Stella Irene ~ Sandy Hiortdahl

Harvest Town ~ Allen M Weber

Hearing Inaudible Things ~ Martin Willitts Jr

Heart Beats ~ Sharon Goodier

Heart of Wisdom ~ Jacqueline Seewald

Hello, It's Your Mother ~ Laurie Kolp

heroin Vs The Almighty Percocet's ~ Bart

Hiccups Haunt Wilson Avenue ~ Marilyn Zelke-Windau

Honestly, ~ Shimmy St. Amore

How to Write Water ~ Amanda Linsmeier

How We Got the Knowledge ~ Carol Alexander

I Know Why the Caged Bird Screams ~ Michael Passafiume

i'm only here because she isn't ~ Kirsti Whalen

In the waiting light ~ Ranjani Neriya

Inelegant Proof ~ Scott C Stewart

Intermittent ~ Ateet Tuli

International Trapeze Act of Fire ~ Jen Karetnick

intoday ~ John Reinhart

Ironflowers ~ Mary Ann Malone

Islands where egrets wade ~ Monika John

It's in the Works! ~ Gail Eisenhart

Kalediscopic Female ~ Don Shook

Collecting Kernels - From the Orchard of my Imagination ~ E M Hector

Knocking on the Roman Walls Around the Ruins of My Heart ~ Telaina Eriksen

Letters in the Margins ~ Alina Stefanescu Coryell

Letters to my Daughter ~ Robert Perry Ivey

Letters to Sneha ~ Souradeep Roy

Letting go ~ Alicia Owen

Life, Death, And Everything In Between ~ Alannah Leary

Life, Truth, and Love ~ Elizabeth Jarah

Lightning, Glass, and Stone ~ Sarah Lilius

Love All the Weather ~ Suzanne Allen

Love and Sorrow ~ B.J. Buckley

Love Letters to Lu ~ Philippe Shils

love poems for various places, people, and things. ~ Katharine Gripp

Love, Transcription ~ Maureen Alsop

Loving the Pyromaniac ~ Louise Fabiani

Lucha ~ Marjorie Sadin

Lucky Tonight ~ Lee Patton

Luminesce ~ Joanna Gale

Mark of Woman ~ Cecilee Jayne Hilton

Military Sexual Trauma ~ Joe Henry Gonzales, Jr.

Mine to Tell (and other poems) ~ Will Reger

Misplaced Bookmarks ~ Winston Mayo

Mortar & Pestle ~ Tavia Grabas

My Father's Bargain ~ Jessica Cuello

My Husband is Praying, But the Ghosts Are Talking To Me ~ Melissa Knox

My Road Divides In Many Directions ~ Lezah Redle

Necessary Work ~ Nicole Rollender

Night Patrol and other Poems ~ Gary Beck

No Judgment ~ Sarah Karstaedt

No Roadmap, No Brakes ~ Madeleine Beckman

No Small Effort ~ Joseph Dorazio

Oasis Bridesmaids ~ E. Doyle-Gillespie

Observations ~ Daena Lee

Ode to the Stage Curtain: The First Native American on Broadway ~ Jennifer Grant

Of Sand and Shadows ~ Paula M. Rodriguez Gomez

On Being Human ~ Heather Awad

Orphanhood After 50 ~ Melvina Noel

Out of Mud ~ John Nimmo

PA ~ Peggy Trojan

Pains, Pleasure, Ecstasy And God's Everlasting ~ Clara Freeman

Pancake Kisses ~ Lydia Suarez

Paper Bridges ~ Karen Douglass

Past the Narrows ~ Mark Mansfield

Pastoral ~ Mark Jay Brewin, Jr.

Patched Collective ~ JW Mark

Patchwork ~ Stephanie Lee Evans

Pearl ~ Lawrence Kessenich

Peeling Back the Veil ~ Andrena Zawinski

Penumbra ~ Sharon Scholl

Planes and Trains and Automobiles ~ Anne Britting Oleson

Poem of the Month Club ~ Alex Stolis

Poetic Injustice ~ SANDRA W. BURCH

Precise as a Cloud ~ June Blumenson

Progress ~ Annette Armellino

Promises to the Dead ~ June Sylvester Saraceno

Recapitulation ~ Rohan Chhetri

Remarkable Shadows ~ Margaret Rozga

Requiem for a Doll ~ Ellie White

Romance Meets Darkness ~ Trishala Sanzgiri

Saltwater Under Brittle Sky ~ Lori DeSanti

Scavenger Hunt ~ Sara Backer

Seat of the Pants ~ Jack Peachum

Seeing Perception ~ Selena Flores

Sidewalk Stories ~ Francis DiClemente

Sipping Sweet Memories from a Cup of Childhood ~ Verna Cole Mitchell

Soul Thoughts ~ Celestial K.

Soulful Passions ~ Shyamal R Swamy

Souvenir ~ Trish Hopkinson

Stanhope ~ Bud R. Berkich

Stay ~ Melissa Jackson

Stirrings of the Soul: The Search for Meaning ~ Kara Spain

Strangers ~ Desiree Miller

Studies in Orange ~ Tom Holmes

Sundown Towns ~ Jacob Collum

Sunrise to Moonlight Pantoums ~ Joan Canby

Swans ~ Katie Berger

Sweet Bones ~ Pattie Flint

Take Wing ~ David Allen Sullivan

That Oragutan Can Sing The Blues ~ Alvaro Salinas Jr

The Atmospheric Mysteries of a Steaming Corpse ~ Kirsten Imani Kasai

The Aviary ~ Melanie Whithaus

The Blue of Touching ~ Gail Ghai
The Clever Dream of Man ~ Lynn Marie Houston

The Coming and The Going ~ Eva Garcia-Mayers

The Consolation of Roses ~ Judith Waller Carroll

The Distance We Become ~ Bob Putnam

The Edge of the Light ~ Peter Blueberry

The Girl with the Green Violin ~ Kirby Wright

The Inconstant Moon ~ Terri Watrous Berry

The Languages We Speak ~ Mary Buchinger

The Laughter of Grass ~ Beate Sigriddaughter

The Magic of A Child's Imagination ~ TreAnna Bradley

The Man Who Wasn't There ~ Jerrice J. Baptiste

The Memory Blossom ~ Rebecca Kaplan

the old man is snoring ~ DiTa Ondek

The Second Coming of Victoria ~ John Kaniecki

The Small Stays We Work ~ Diane Kendig

The Soup of My Ancestors ~ Tracey S. Rosenberg

The Trouble of the Sea Horse ~ Atar Hadari

The Unbroken Child ~ Nicole Matos

The Uncollected Poems of Draculae, Erstwhile Count of Wallachia ~ Gregg Murray

The Valley Gives Up Its Light First ~ Paul Weidknecht

The Wednesday Night Suppers ~ Evelyn Posamentier

The Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee ~ Lizzy Huitson

The Words Unsaid ~ Mayra Garibo

These the Last Verses ~ J. Simon Harris

This Is The Photo ~ Eva Schlesinger

Through My Wayfarers ~ E.P. Groves

Through The Shattered Glass ~ Kylee Hereid

Time To Walk The Talk ~ Ndaba Sibanda

Tiny Little Cracks ~ Dr. Carol Graham

Tricks of Light ~ Issa M. Lewis

Underneath My D.C. Memories ~ Betty Lipton

WakeBreatheMove ~ Christina M. Rau

War Stories ~ Paul David Adkins

We Drink Wine with Dinner ~ Cari Oleskewicz

Weird Char@cters ~ RJ Clarken

Werewolf Juggles the Moon ~ Steve Klepetar

What God in this Forest Dwells ~ Leland James

Whispering Sorrows ~ Fabiyas M V

Whole Burnt ~ Carine Topal

Whose Age Has Charms ~ Janet M. Powers

Wings Of Phoenix ~ Neha Rautela

Winter Verses for the Summer Soul ~ Avleen K Mokha