The 5th Annual Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest congratulates all the winners and finalists from the Hudson Valley region and from around the world. We plan on having a reading which will be scheduled when the pandemic is over. In the meantime, you can view the list of winners and finalists below. Thanks also to the many local and regional poets who submitted a poem to the contest. There was a lot of good work that we enjoyed reading during the winter.
2020 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest Winners and Finalists
First ($500) —“Agua” —George Franklin, Miami, Florida
Second ($400) —“Bathing my Father” —Kendall Hoeft, Berkeley, California
Third ($300) —“A Poem from My Father to My Mother” —Steve Denehan, Naas, County Kildare, Ireland
Fourth ($200) —three-way tie:
“Trout Fishing On Ten-Mile Creek” —Thomas Bonville, Catskill, NY
“Australia” —Deryn Pittar, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
“The Third Fall of His Incarceration” —Rebecca Schumejda, Rensselaer, NY
Honorable Mentions (12 at $100):
“What did I love about” —Kathleen Smith, Loudonville, NY
“in every life, girlhood is the same” —Dilki Jayasooriya, Karlstad, Sweden
“The House Reads Matchbooks” —Madison Van Edwards, Albany, NY
“The Mind-Changing Magic of Tidying-Up” —Susan Kress, Saratoga Springs, NY
“Translation Book For A Child Between Countries” —Ojo Taiye, Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria
“Darwin’s Daughter” —Jackie Craven, Schenectady, NY
“My broken magnolia tree” —Mary K O’Melveny, Kingston, NY
“Our World as a Tree Falling Leaf by Leaf” —Taofeek Ayeyemi, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
“Epithalamium for Home or Ennui for body” —Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria
“Another Gray Afternoon in Guernica” —Kenneth Salzmann, Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico
“Remembering working” —Alan Catlin, Schenectady, NY
“Red Leaf Tree in Summer” —D. Colin, Troy, NY
Other Finalists:
“Elaine, the Lady of Shalott, Sets the Record Straight” —Hannah Bleier, Malden, Massachusetts
“an ode to Myself” —Nikhita Datar, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“St. Ignatius Down the Street” —Mimi Moriarty, Voorheesville, NY
“Grandson of Africa” —Jegede, Steve Olutunmise, Ile-Ife, Osum State, Nigeria
“Rain” —Mary Panza, Albany, NY
“What A World” —Gregory C. Wilder Jr., Schenectady, NY
“The Red Beret” —Isobel Cunningham, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
“The Image That’s Me” —F.J. Tomy, Mombasa, Kenya
“Untitled: Most challenges that I have faced” —Ian Macks, Troy, NY
“the book of noah ii//or how the snake found its way into the ark” —O-Jeremiah Agbaakin, Lagos, Nigeria
“Sno-Cone Joe” —Tom Corrado, Middleburgh, NY
“India’s Daughter” —Sonia B Sydney, Kerala, India
“The Bride in Black” —Rahana K. Ismail, Calicut, Kerala, India
“Southern Shallow Groundwater” —Elizabeth Hays Tussey, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
“Home from the War” —Nancy Klepsch, Troy, NY
“Birth” —Onyekwelu Chiwenite Kingsley, Ikenga Ogidi, Anambra State, Nigeria
“The Plains of Abraham” —David DeVries, Troy, NY
“The Darkroom” —John Paul Davies, Navan, County Meath, Ireland
“Saheli Stop! You Are Breaking Them” —Saheli Khastagir, New Orleans, Louisiana
“At the Missing Sock Laundromat” —Noah Kucij, Albany, NY
