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 Kim Addonizio, Elizabeth Shvarts, Itiola Jones. The pieces are diverse, arresting, and substantial,…
Kayleb Rae Candrilli has won the 2020 Frontier OPEN! A sincere formal innovation and work of magic, “A Marble Run for Another End-of-Days” is a stunning new addition to our winners of the Frontier OPEN and the $5000 prize. Please…
In this surreal, fabulist poem, the speaker in Gabriella Balza’s “FIELD NOTES” watches as her home transforms, “slow and shapeless.” Left to wander among the bare trees, in a bizarre unraveling of events, the speaker begins to realize that while…
In “Your iris needs light to make an image,” Sean Cho Ayres zeroes in on the cold essence of the scientific method and juxtaposes it with the quivering vulnerability of a fawn at the mercy of Mother Nature. Cleverly, Cho…
Congratulations to the winners of Frontier Poetry’s 2020 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 Kayleb Rae Candrilli, the…
In “Halal Store,” the white patriarchal society is overwhelming to the immigrant class, as in the language the mother and daughter struggle with, to the literal white man kicking the back of their seats on the bus. Always made to…
“For Mohmoh” is a subtle elegy with a visceral echo. Written to honor the memory of a boyhood friend lost too soon: it is delivered through the lens of a brief yet buoyant brotherhood. For Mohmoh When I remember you,…
Olumide Manuel’s “Patchworky Threnody for Bullet Holes” works, through protest poetry and song, to condemn the actions of those who subjugate the Nigerian citizenry by force. Also, with a justified and eloquent pen, Manuel simultaneously uplifts and champions everyday Nigerians,…
Cyndie Randall’s “My Smile Is a Woman’s Work” pushes, with thin restraint, into a heated critique and commentary of gender expectations. Here, we’ve been invited into the dangerously erotic “shroud of the tongue” behind a smile, a woman’s grin, with…
Ashwini Bhasi has crafted a dangerous and gripping performance of erotic ars poetica. Every poem going forward for our team is now that “hump-nosed pit viper coiled on a dowel in the dark”—spilling poison, and ready to strike. How…
