Announcing the Quarter Finalists to the 2016 Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize

We had an amazing field of poetry to judge this year. For our fifth Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize, we have selected 200 quarter finalists, our largest field ever.

In the next phase, we will narrow these chapbooks 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. (Three 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 in the past -- Jay Parini, Fred Marchant, Dorothea Lasky, and Larry D. Thomas.

Congratulations poets, and please, if we made an error in your title or name, reply to the email you received when we confirmed your original submission to let us know. We kept the capitalization you provided when you filled in the form, but if you weren't going for e.e. cumming's style, let us know.

And here they are!

Adriana Claudia Ciobotu ~ A Symphony of Sighs
Aidan Ziliak ~ What Do I Do with My Diploma?
Ajamu Abdullah ~ ProtoStar
Alan D. Harris ~ Fall Ball and other late inning storylines
alex stolis ~ Postcards from the Knife Thrower
Alice Stinetorf ~ Within Our Vagrant Flesh
Alina Stefanescu ~ i watch dishes
Aline Alzime ~ Love Solstice
Allie Marini ~ Cliffdiving
Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi ~ Selected Poems
Amy Krohn ~ Grass Fire
Ana Prundaru ~ Cinderella takes a Gap Year
Andrea Janelle Dickens ~ Landscape With Buffalo
Andrea Marsiano ~ Distance
A.M Rees ~ Insecurities and Remedies
Ann Taylor ~ The Exquisite Truth: Heloise and Abelard
Anna Cates ~ Starry, Starry Nights
Anne Britting Oleson ~ Ruelle des Rèves
Atar Hadari ~ Letters to Larkin
Ava Love Hanna ~ The Life-Cycle of a North American Woman
B Deep ~ In The Belly Of A Star
Beate Sigriddaughter ~ Thirteen Love Poems and Twelve Songs of Despair
Becca Lamarre ~ You Are The Pestle
Ben Johnson ~ The Art of Communication
Benjamin Pfau ~ Vanilla
Betty Lipton ~ On A Wednesday My Childhood Died
Bill Cushing ~ Two Centuries
Blake C. Aarens ~ Clearing A Silted Stream
Briana Forney ~ Missing Antecedent
Bud R. Berkich ~ Halley Street Revisited
Cari Oleskewicz ~ You'll Find Me on the Highway
Carol Dorf ~ The Theory Headed Dragon
Carolyn Martin ~ Say the Words
Cassandra Baliga ~ Giant Shadows From Small Corners
Catherine Moore ~ Flesh is Narrative
Cherise Wyneken ~ White Cranes
Christina M. Rau ~ Liberating The Astronauts
Clara Freeman ~ A Southern Woman's Confessional- Poems from the soul
Clinton Siegle ~ Syria
Corey Ginsberg ~ Bowling in the Bumper Lane
Courtney Claire Taylor ~ The Moon for Our Garden
D. I. Ejuailo ~ Sounds of a Missing Jazzman
Daniela Violin ~ Something Scandalous
Dante Di Stefano ~ Grace Notes
darlene anita scott ~ Try Years of Today Like Today
David Butler ~ The Dogfish
David Allen Sullivan ~ Take Wing
Deborah Chava Singer ~ Body of Feeling, Body of Knowledge
Derek Kannemeyer ~ What Lives
Diana Woodcock ~ IInto Vastness and Freedom
Don Thompson ~ Something About the Light
Donna J. Sanders ~ Lost in Paradise
Donna Nelesen ~ Women as Overcomers
Dori Appel ~ Escape Artist
Dot Dannenberg ~ The Wild Eye
Dr. Graham ~ Tiny Little Cracks: Lessons Learned in the Classroom (and other Tales of Enlightenment)
Eleanor Stanford ~ Forming the Artificial Body
Elise Hempel ~ Older Man
Elizabeth Breder ~ My Own Making
Elizabeth Johnston ~ Where the Wild Sing
Emma Decent ~ I dare you
Fernando Valdivia ~ Seam Allowances
Fletch Fletcher ~ Love the Loop
Gail Eisenhart ~ Lost and Found
Gail Langstroth ~ Hyena Dreams
Gary Beck ~ The Mind of a Liar
Gary Glauber ~ Focal Points
Gene Hult ~ Render
Gina Marie Mammano ~ Pill Hill and Other Stories
Hannington Mumo ~ A Sound From Africa's Lyrical Caves
Heather Awad ~ Cleaning Out Closets
HeidiLynn Nilsson ~ The Math of Gifts that Are Not Wages
Hemant Bawankar ~ Words ...and Poetry
Howard Sage ~ Nutritious Contention
Issa M. Lewis ~ Tricks of Light
Irene Bloom ~ Stirrings
Ivy Alvarez ~ The Museum of Welsh Life
J.C. Elkin ~ Legacy
Jack Peachum ~ Seat Of the Pants Poems
Jackie Craven ~ Thirsty Wishes
Jacqueline Seewald ~ Heart of Wisdom
James G. Piatt ~ Reflections of an Aging Poet
James M. Croteau ~ Tangled in the Sweat on My Neck
Janne Karlsson ~ Cooking for the void
Jane Rosenberg LaForge ~ In Remembrance of the Life
Janet M. Powers ~ Some Other Magic
Janet Ruhe-Schoen ~ Dedicatorias/ Dedications
Jay K. Mishra ~ Trance-Memories
Jennifer Ruth Jackson ~ The Layers of This Being
Jerri Hardesty ~ On Location
Jessica Goody ~ Other Voices
Jim Davis ~ Neon
Jimmy Reed ~ Illuminating Words of Fortitude in Some Dark Times
Joan Canby ~ Rancho Peude Ser
Joe Henry Gonzales, Jr. ~ Roses and Sparrows Die In Texas
John C. Mannone ~ Elements of Survival
John Reinhart ~ Black and White Teeth Marks
Judith Kelly Quaempts ~ All That We Are
Judith Waller Carroll ~ Ordinary Beauty
Julia Hones ~ The creature inside a cage with wings
Julianna Tresca ~ Darkness is Misunderstood
Julie Fowler ~ In Search of Sweetness
June Capossela Kempf ~ Lifelines
JW Mark ~ Menagerie
KJ Hannah Greenberg ~ Politics Like Sardines
Karen Little ~ Joined at the Root
Kathleen Gunton ~ If in This Sleep
Kathleen Rose Guiles ~ My Tender Side
Kathy Engel ~ The Lost Brother Alphabet
Kevin Zepper ~ Moonman
Kira Geiger ~ Nothing Like This Dream
Kirby Wright ~ At the Artist Colony
Knar Gavin ~ Live Lives
Nolo Segundo ~ The Enormity of Existence
Laryssa Wirstiuk ~ Vanna White Clapping
Laura Foley ~ Between Apple and Limb
Laura Lee Perkins ~ Soul Music
Laura Taylor ~ Kaleidoscope
Laurie Kolp ~ The End, Beached
Leah Mueller ~ Allergic to Everything
Leland James ~ The Barrenness of Light
LindaAnn Loschiavo ~ "Dangerously in Love"
Lisa Folkmire ~ Lessons I Thought I Understood: A Poetry Collection
Lisa Hartz ~ Bloom or Perish
Lisa L. Lynn ~ From the Alembic: Alchemical Poems
Lisa M. Hase-Jackson ~ When I Die, Remember Me
Lisa Timpf ~ Only Natural
Loretta J. Oleck ~ Songs From the Black Hole
Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen ~ Paper Daughter
Lukata Martin ~ Imperfect Expressions of Perfect Concerns
Magdalena Ball ~ Most of Everything is Nothing
Malia Rock ~ Be Careful Who You Make Memories With
Margaret Rozga ~ Measure of Peace
Marguerite Costigan ~ Rock & Fire
Marilyn Zelke-Windau ~ Woof Worthy
Mark Alen Jenkins ~ Forklift Tattoo
Mark Mansfield ~ Past the Narrows
Mark Smith-Soto ~ Only Human
Mark Wacome Stevick ~ Local Habitations
Martin Willitts Jr ~ Snowy Day
Mary Buchinger ~ Vagrancies
Mary Kipps ~ The Art of Kissing Softly
Mary W. Jensen ~ Break Free From Stillness
Maureen Sherbondy ~ Belongings
Meg Eden ~ Drowning in the Floating World
Melissa Atkinson Mercer ~ After the Miracle Season
Melodic Rose ~ The Ephemorphosis
Michael Baldwin ~ Messing With Texas
Michael Campagnoli ~ Fuoco
Michael Jones ~ [S]ELF
Michelle Chen ~ A Thousand Natural Shocks
Miles Liss ~ All the Constellations
mobnika john ~ "Not that I love you less"
Nathanael Cook ~ From the Happy Stones of the Living
Ndaba Sibanda ~ A Season to Reason
Nick Hilbourn ~ Pacha
P.C. Vandall ~ Brain Freeze and Heart Burn
Pat Anthony ~ In the Pink Bowl
Patti Sullivan ~ Top Forty
Paul David Adkins ~ Baghdad Menagerie
Paul Dickey ~ The Wall Refuses to Allow Itself to Be Painted
Paul Fauteux ~ Scattered Letters
R. Bremner ~ Kerouac Dreams, Kerouac Visions
Raegen Pietrucha ~ An Animal I Can't Name
Raydene Nash ~ Love Within A Nervous Breakdown
Rhiannon Thorne ~ Stillbirth
Rob Stephens ~ The Art of Fugue
Rose M. Smith ~ Holes in My Teeth
Ruchika Jain ~ A Sun in My Ear
Sandra Campbell ~ Breaking Through
Sarah Ann Winn ~ Gone Golden
Sarah Frances Moran ~ Evergreen
Sarah Lilius ~ Lightning, Glass, and Stone
Sarah Richards ~ Complexities, of Mind and Body
Savannah Thorne ~ Dare
Schuyler Peck ~ An Alcoholic's Holy Water
Scott Beal ~ The Octopus
Sea Sharp ~ The Swagger of Dorothy Gale & Other Filthy Ways to Strut
Shari Caplan ~ Advice from a Siren
Shauna Osborn ~ Indra's Net
Shawn Ballard ~ Time for the Rats and Pigeons to Dance
Simon Peter Eggertsen ~ Without Knowing
S. Wallace ~ Women's Voices: Seasons of Change
Shinjini Bhattacharjee ~ Homebodies and Other Exhibits
Simon Mermelstein ~ The Continuing Adventures of Orthomax (now with Bombastic Pentameter!)
Skyy ~ A Womans Worth
Sondous Alsoubani ~ verses of an overzealous friend
Sonja Johanson ~ Stirring Settled Honey
Stephanie Lane Sutton ~ Revocation
Steve LaVigne ~ My heart the betrayer
Sylvia Telfer ~ Pandora's Boxes - Fragile
Tanque R. Jones ~ Little Deaths
Theodore Irvin Silar ~ Nunc Dimmitis
Thu Anh Nguyen ~ Passages
Tinasha LaRayé ~ skin, of the chocolate complexion
Tracey S. Rosenberg ~ Quiet Burning Makes a Good Marriage
Tracie Renee ~ Soundtrack
Tracy Davidson ~ Another Sunrise
Trish Hopkinson ~ Stranger Underneath
Ty Stumpf ~ Remains
Valerie Wieland ~ Life is a Test
Verna Cole Mitchell ~ Dinner of English for the Teacher