2003

Winner of the George Garrett Fiction Prize for 2002

Thomas Cobb grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and attended the creative writing programs at the University of Arizona and the University of Houston. He teaches writing and literature at Rhode Island College. He lives in western Rhode Island with his wife, dog, and two cats. He is the author of one published novel, Crazy Heart.

At times a light-hearted romp through the wasteland world of contemporary creative writing where only the phony seem to survive and prosper, at times a vicious attack on the hypocrisy of political correctness and contemporary sexual mores, and at times a sordid slog through the back alleys of a single soul's despair, Ars Poetica evolves as a parable of a passionate poet in a postmodern world, one fraught with the perils of pretense and one that offers meaningful achievement only at the price of the poetic soul.

"This collection is a sampling of work by one of the most dynamic teachers of English ever to have graced this earth, a man of charm and intelligence and wit. From his earliest poetry to his latest, we see the evolution of this fine poet; we sample his scholarship, his touching serious fiction and children's tales, and his insightful newspaper columns; and finally, we see Robert Holland through his letters. The lives of hundreds of students were altered by the influence of this noblest of men, and for his contributions to education and literature, those of us touched by him should be so very grateful." --Paul Ruffin

Winner of the 2002 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize

Like a sonogram that sifts 'through layers of tissue to bone' to explore the flawed heart of an unborn child, the poems in this brilliant collection by Nancy Naomi Carlson give us 'different views—cross-sectional maps' of the complicated human heart with its 'twitching desires' and trace the choices we make to negotiate our way through that difficult terrain. Carlson's language is gracefully seductive as she guides us to destinations exotic and erotic. With its deft formal control, immence charm and wisdom, Complications of the Heart is that rarity: a work that yeilds greater delight with each rereading." --Richard Foerster, Series Judge

Stephen March grew up mostly in Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina. His short stories have been published in New Orleans Review, Carolina Quarterly, Tampa Review, Seattle Review, William and Mary Review and Appalachian Heritage, among others. He is currently an English professor at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Winner of the 2002 X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize

Jan Lee Ande’s first book, Instructions for Walking on Water, won the 2000 Snyder Prize from Ashland Poetry Press. Her poems appear in New Letters, Image, Nimrod, Notre Dame Review, Mississippi Review, Poetry International and the anthologies Place of Passage (Story Line Press) and Jubilation (Beat Books). She teaches poetry, poetics, and history of religions at Union Institute & University. Ande is from the Pacific Northwest.