Santa Barbara, CA – The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of its Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards. Since 1995, the Foundation has encouraged poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit through these Awards. The poetry awards are offered in three categories: Adult; Youth (13 to 18); and Children (12 and under).
In the Adult category, Devreaux Baker, from Mendocino, California, was awarded the $1,000 First Place Prize for her poem “In the Year of the Drone.” Ms. Baker has published three books of poetry, with a fourth to be published in January 2015. She has taught poetry workshops in France, Mexico and the United States; and Poetry in the Schools through the California Poets In Schools Program. Her awards include the 2011 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry Award, the Hawaii Council on Humanities International Poetry Prize, and the Women’s Global Leadership Poetry Award.
The First Place Prize of $200 in the Youth (13 to 18) category was awarded to Sophia Marusic for her poem “Vietnam: January 28, 1973.” Ms. Marusic lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and is a sophomore at John Burroughs School. She is the art editor of her school literary magazine and is a member of the St. Louis Poetry Center.
An Honorable Mention in the Youth (13 to 18) category was awarded to Alice Yanhong Lu for her poem “Free.” Ms. Lu lives in North Potomac, Maryland, and attends the University of Maryland, College Park.
In the Children (12 and under) category, the First Place Prize of $200 was awarded to Leila Metres for her poem “Soil Soul.” Leila lives in University Heights Ohio, where she is home schooled.
The Peace Poetry Awards are named for the late Barbara Mandigo Kelly, a poet, pianist and peace advocate.
Two anthologies of winning poems in the annual Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards have been published. The first anthology, The Poetry of Peace, was published by Capra Press in 2003. The second anthology, Never Enough Flowers: The Poetry of Peace II, was published by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 2012. The winning poems since 1995 are also available to read at https://www.peacecontests.org/poetry/winners.pdf.
For more information, including the 2015 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards Guidelines, please visit the Foundation’s website at https://www.peacecontests.org/poetry/index.php or contact the Foundation at (805) 965-3443.
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