"Splendid, grotesque, violent, but always loving, Lina ramona Vitkauskas writes like a contemporary Marina Tsvetaeva through a landscape of the uncertain and surreal; the language is made from the nervousness and energy of every bee in the hive. Part “rotten aorta” and part “snapdragon wine”, the poems in HONEY IS A SHE form a buzzing network of inventive beauty.” —Sandra Simonds, author of Mother was a Tragic Girl

“Francesco Levato’s powerful documentary, War Rug—like Eliot Weinberger’s What I heard about Iraq before it—detains the language of the perpetrators of global military aggression and redeploys it to indict them. From J.C. Penny catalog copy to counterintelligence manuals and autopsy reports, War Rug is a fierce yet unfortunate reminder of the absolute horrors of our age.” —Mark Nowak, author of Coal Mountain Elementary

Juried Reading, Book 15:
The Poetry Center of Chicago

Each year The Poetry Center of Chicago invites regional poets to submit their unpublished work for consideration in its Annual Juried Reading, judged this year by Brenda Hillman. Finalists receive cash awards, are invited to read their work at The Poetry Center, and have their work published in a chapbook designed specifically for this event. This year The Poetry Center partnered with Plastique Press to design the competition’s chapbook as an expanded Plastique eBook, which features the work of its nine finalists: Lina ramona Vitkauskas (1st place), Carrie Oeding (2nd place), Richard Fox (3rd place), Stephanie Anderson, Patrick Culliton, Ellen Elder, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Megan Levad, and Stephanie Sauer.

Click here for free download.