Foundlings Press is pleased to announce that Margarita Serafimova has won the inaugural Ralph Angel poetry prize, judged by Mary Ruefle.
The inaugural contest saw over 200 submissions. Ruefle and the reading group selected a longlist, a shortlist, and three finalists in addition to Serafimova, whose poem “The Biologists” takes top honors. Foundlings Press will publish “The Biologists” in a limited-edition letterpress broadside produced at Western New York Book Arts Center and available from FoundlingsPress.com.
About the Winner: Margarita Serafimova
Margarita Serafimova is the winner of the 2020 biennial Tony Quagliano/ Hawai’i Council for the Humanities International Award for innovative poetry 'recognizing an accomplished poet with an outstanding body of work', 2020 and 2021 Pushcart nominee and a finalist in nine other U.S. and international poetry contests. She has four collections in Bulgarian and two in English, ‘A Surgery of A Star’ (2020) and ‘Еn-tîm’ ('The Forest') (2021). Her work appears widely, including at Nashville Review, LIT, Agenda Poetry, Poetry South, Steam Ticket, Waxwing, Reunion Dallas, Trafika Europe, Obra/ Artifact, Botticelli, Shrew, Noble/ Gas, Great Weather for Media, Landfill, Nixes Mate. Visit.
Finalists
Jack Christian
Dara Yen Elerath
Alina Stefanescu
Shortlist
Emily Alexander
Jen Ashburn
Frances Cannon
Will Cordiero
TJ DiFrancesco
Stephanie Yue Duhem
Sam Ferrante
Joan Glass
Jonathan Hoel
Victoria Hudson
Saba Keramati
Paul Kopp
Edward Krzeminski
Özge Lena
Ojo Taiye
Fathima Zahra
Longlist
Sarah Ghazal Ali
Kyle Anderson
Sara Backer
Ansie Baird
S. Erin Batiste
Sayan Aich Bhowmik
Prince Bush
Willa Carroll
Jeffrey Chang
Martin Cossio
Sean Thomas Dougherty
Jehanne Dubrow
Aidan Forster
Lesley Graham
Anya Groner
Gabrielle Grace Hogan
Leah Kaminski
Jakob Maier
Dan Mallette
Cassidy McFadzean
Matt Mitchell
Anne Myles
Maya Owen
Jody Stewart
Marion Winik
Rachel Franklin Wood
About The Ralph Angel Poetry Prize
The Ralph Angel Poetry Prize honors the memory of the late Ralph Angel, a poet, teacher, and friend to many—including Foundlings Press. The prize recognizes a single poem; the winning poet receives a $250 award and a limited edition broadside publication of the winning poem. Mary Ruefle judged the inaugural prize, introduced in spring 2021.
Foundlings Press will produce the broadsides at Western New York Book Arts Center and they will be available for sale exclusively at FoundlingsPress.com until the run sells out.
About Ralph Angel
Ralph Angel (1951-2020) was an American poet, translator, and educator. He was born in Seattle, Washington, as a second-generation American of Sephardic Jewish descent. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Washington and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine. He went on to become the Edith R. White Distinguished Professor at the University of Redlands, where he shaped the Creative Writing Department and taught for 39 years, and he was a beloved member of the MFA in Writing faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Angel’s published works included Anxious Latitudes (Wesleyan University Press, 1986); Neither World (Miami University Press, 1995), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; Twice Removed (Sarabande Books, 2001), which was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award; Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 (Sarabande Books, 2006), honored with the 2007 PEN USA Award for Poetry; and Your Moon (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013), which was awarded the 2013 Green Rose Poetry Prize. His translation of the Federico García Lorca collection, Poema del cante jondo / Poem of the Deep Song, (Sarabande Books, 2006) received a Willis Barnstone Poetry Translation Prize.
Angel’s poems have appeared in scores of magazines, and have been collected in numerous anthologies, including The Plume Anthology of Poetry, Pratik International, The Heart's Many Doors, The Best American Poetry, American Hybrid, Poets of the New Century, and Forgotten Language. Other awards included a gift from the Elgin Cox Trust, a Pushcart Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, a Fulbright Foundation fellowship, and the Bess Hokin Award of the Modern Poetry Association.
Angel was a friend of Foundlings Press and contributed to the Strays series. His collection in Strays Pack 2 was his final publication before his passing on March 6, 2020.