Thank you for joining us on the journey through the OPEN winners! You can find Chaun Ballard’s winning poem here, and Part 1 of the finalists here. For Part 2, we’re sharing work by Kimberly Nguyễn, Emma De Lisle, and…
First, a sincere thank you to all the finalists for partnering with us. All of these poems deserve high praise. For Part 1, we’re sharing work by Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Christiane Jacox, and Kelly Weber. The pieces are diverse, arresting,…
Chaun Ballard has won the 2021 Frontier OPEN! A wrenching performance of the political lyric, read from right to left, “Fireworks” is the latest addition to our winners of the Frontier OPEN and the $5000 prize. Please stay tuned as…
Congratulations to the winners of Frontier Poetry’s 2021 OPEN and an enormous thanks to everyone who submitted. Thank you, also, for your patience while we reviewed all the extraordinary work. A BIG round of applause to Chaun Ballard, the winner…
In “song,” the speaker examines, through a vibrant musicality, the most profound and enigmatic moments in life, ultimately settling for and preferring to be “damned to beauty.” song & what did we become by all our cunning, all our…
The speaker here celebrates the unbreakable bond of a child and father and then just as quickly mourns their sudden passing. A touching tribute piece to a father gone too soon. My Father a contrapuntal: a poem where each…
In “North Coast Chorus,” the speaker empathizes with the rampant imperfections of nature; like the poet’s flailing body, nature, waves and wind, crash and yet manage to resemble rebirth. North Coast Chorus Somewhere near Trinidad on the coast road…
In “Camellia,” a mother teaches a daughter the quiet mysteries of womanhood; the speaker is taught to hold on to Seoul, to sing without a mouth, to listen to the mournful river. Camellia The first thing a mother teaches…
In “HEMINGWAY COUNTRY,” the speaker describes the difficulties of growing up Latinx, or non-white, in a world of whiteness and suspicion. Always a target, the speaker learns to navigate a world where love seems foreign or violent and the only…
In “Smokescreens,” the speaker skillfully juxtaposes harsh realities from around the world; “we are all animals” the speaker announces, capable of being both “broken, bruised,” but also capable of song, like the deer in the mist. Smokescreens In this…
