Morning,
Hope the start of the weekend finds you well. I hope it’s payday for you. Take yourself out to a nice taco dinner.
I did just that yesterday evening when I got word that my poem, I’m not sure how I feel about the sound, had won Thelma’s Prize. The judge was none other than Catfish McDaris (who you should be reading by now)!
Here’s proof (of the sweet, sweet tacos of victory):
I’m not sure how I feel about the sound was originally published in The Song Is… by Marianne Szlyk (click her name to read two of her wonderful poems published in Foliate Oak) back in November of 2016. Another of the four poems published at that time, When I Sing, was an honorable mention (just picture a podium of A.S. Coomers standing about awkwardly…).
Here’s proof (not about tacos this time):
Catfish McDaris judged the other half of the Thelma’s Prize poems and prose as well as the contest of work inspired by musicians born in the 1930s. Congratulations to the winner of a Thelma’s Prize, A.S. Coomer, for his poem “I’m not sure how I feel about the sound.” The poem truly impressed our judge, and A.S.’s other poem “When I Sing” earned an honorable mention. The other honorable mentions are Michael Lee Johnson’s “Little Desert Flower,” Claudine Nash’s “Talk Radio,” Tad Richards’ “Sex with Poets,” and Vera Drozdova’s “I Will Drown, I Will Go Deaf.” Catfish also praised Michael Lee Johnson’s “Lion in My Heart” and Ndaba Sibanda’s “Intoxicating Songs and Sights.” Congratulations to Bryn Fortey whose poem “Joanne Brackeen” won the 1930s contest! It is always interesting to see whom he rediscovers in his poems. His poems “Earl Hooker” and “Lee Morgan” earned the honorable mentions in this contest. Catfish also praised Michael Lee Johnson’s “Alberta Bound” and Kerfe Roig’s “Wild wind and dancing stories (a shovel poem for Nina Simone).”
Needless to say, I’m honored. Flabbergasted. Excited. A whole slew of things.
-A.S. Coomer
Categories: Award/Prize, Literature, Poetry
A.S. Coomer 
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