Pushcart Prize Nominations

Sugar House Review is lucky and honored and still amazed to have Paul Muldoon's poem from our first issue (Fall/Winter 2009) included in Pushcart Prize XXXV--Best of the Small Presses, which is out now and available for purchase. We have a copy and recommend it, not only because of Muldoon's poem, but because it's a great anthology of work, illustrating the wonderful job small presses are doing.

This new Pushcart anthology signals not only a great collection, but also that it's time for this year's nominations. We had a difficult time narrowing it down to six, because we love all of the work we've published this past year. Here are the six poems we nominated:

• Steven Cramer's "Versions of Mandelstam" (v3)
• Yolanda Franklin's "Porch Sitters Sippin' Sweet Tea in Heaven" (v2)
• Randall R. Freisinger's "Alien Sex" (v2)
• William Kloefkorn's "Sundown Syndrome" (v2)
• Janet Sylvester's "Away From the Flock" (v2)
• Pimone Triplett's "I Dream of Jeannie: Parabolic Lens" (v3)

Congratulations to these six poets!

We want to thank all of our contributors--obviously, we wouldn't have any Sugar without you--we appreciate you and your work.

New Poets of the American West

About a month ago, Nathaniel and I attended a reading for the anthology New Poets of the American West in Tremonton, Utah on the Holmgren Historical Farm. It was an amazing evening--a reading in the barn, with a bon fire to follow. Such a beautiful setting and beautiful work.


A couple of weeks after that, a few of our editors attended the Helicon West reading in Logan, Utah (posted previously on this blog) also featuring poets from the new anthology. It was another excellent evening of poetry and several of the poets at both readings have had work in Sugar House Review. If you don't already have a copy of the anthology, we here at the Sugar, endorse it--it's big, it's Western and it has some great poets.

Rob Carney has two poems in our current issue--he read part of one of them that night.

Star Coulbrooke has three poems in our first issue, is the founder of Helicon West and organizer of this evening's reading, plus she won editor's choice award for her poem in this anthology.

Michael Sowder has three poems in the current issue of SHR.

Chris Kokinos

Katherine Coles, Utah's Poet Laureate

You might not guess it, but Utah really has some incredible writers. Tomorrow night at Helicon West (Thurs., Nov. 11) our review editor, Mike McLane will be reading with Rob Carney. Both of their work is great, so if you're around, go see them.