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2015 Oregon Literary Fellowship Hajara Quinn wins Ruth Stone First Book Prize

Hajara Quinn, a 2015 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient in poetry, has just been announced as the winner of the  Ruth Stone First Book Prize.  Quinn’s book Coolth will be published in Fall 2017.   Her poem “Midnight Lime” was featured on our blog in 2015:

Midnight Lime

There is an argument to be made
for standing in the street

waiting for the midnight lime
to fall from the midnight tree.

Streetlight pole dances down
onto the sidewalk

and the incredible thing
is how the monogamous moon

manages to be monogamous
to each of us in turn —

our coxswain in the boat.
The decisions we’ve made break

over us in waves,
like apprentices of the future.

The wind has been knocked
out of this night. Inside, our

house is as quiet as a guitar in
the attic going out of tune.

Objects sit in their caste system,
the curtains bored, the bed

a sway-backed dromedary.
Self as slot machine, and self

as clover patch. Let them be
the two sides of this story,

converging or disappearing
while I keep walking down

the street at midnight just like
a woman who has never

taught a child how to pray.

Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients with publishing news or updates, please email Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org to share your news and be featured on our blog.  The 2017 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients will be announced in January.

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