It’s a celebration
Lucky Jefferson is excited to announce two winners of its 2023 Poetry and Prose contest!
Our Poetry Winner
Maya J. Sorini, is a narrative medicine scholar, medical student, and award-winning poet. Her first collection, The Boneheap in the Lion’s Den, won the 2023 Press 53 Award for Poetry. Maya currently attends Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and lives in Bergen County with her grandmother.
Enjoy “Insurmountable” here.
In the desert not overcoming its dryness, or the pain making survivable the scream, we feel every ounce of tenderness and agony in this poem. The image: making grits of bone, crawls across the skin and will stay with us long after the end. “Insurmountable” lives up to its name.
Morgan Christie’s remarks on Sorini’s “Insurmountable”
Our Prose Winner
Jessie Leitzel is human, scientist, writer and, most importantly, student. They have been published in reviews such as Rattle Young Poets Anthology and Beyond Queer Words, along with receiving Scholastic Writing Awards for their work in prose and poetry. They pursue aspirations in biomedical engineering and disprove the “science or art brain” mentality on the daily. Besides the page, they may be found at their favorite Pakistani restaurant, or editing their journal, Trace Fossils Review.
Enjoy “Those Coming From the Frost” here.
There is so much control here; in language, pace, imagery, and character. Murrey’s grief and longing to connect with Arden twist into shards of resonance that touch us through the page. “Those Coming From the Frost” is a story of the intimacy in the distance between us.
Morgan Christie’s remarks on Leitzel’s “Those Coming From the Frost”
Join us in celebrating our finalists:
Adesiyan Oluwapelumi
Talicha J.
Adam Gianforcaro
Alex Baskin
Shoba Narayan
A.T. Ross
BEE LB
Jieun Paik
Maya J. Sorini
Jaimie Wilson
Jonathan Samuel Eddie
Olivia Go
Khalisa Rae
Anam Tariq
Allison Xu
Jessie Leitzel
Read the work of our finalists in the 365 Collection beginning January 1, 2024
Our Why
Why are we doing this? We believe writers deserve opportunities like this (and so much more) and one core part of our mission includes being the difference. Many contests charge fees to enter or make writers and artists jump through hoops with no real return. We want to change that.
This Year’s Judge
Morgan Christie’s work has appeared in Room, Hawai’i Review, Sport Literate, and elsewhere. She is the author of four poetry chapbooks and her first full-length short story manuscript ‘These Bodies’ (Tolsun Books, 2020) and was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in fiction. Her poetry chapbook ‘when they come’ was released by Black Sunflowers Press (2021) and is featured in the Forward Arts Foundation’s National Poetry Day exhibit. She is the 2022 Arc Poetry Poem of the Year Winner and her collection ‘People Without Wings’ is the winner of the 2022 Digging Chapbook Series Prize (Digging Press, 2023). Her first essay collection, ‘Boolean Logic’ is the winner of the Howling Bird Nonfiction Book Prize (2023), and her novella ‘Liddle Deaths’ (Stillhouse Press) is due out in 2024.
We are SO thankful for the anonymous donor making this opportunity possible!