The National Poetry Series announced yesterday the five winners of the 2009 Open Competition. The prize, established in 1978, is given annually to "ensure the publication of five books of poetry a year" through trade, university, and small press publishers, with winning manuscripts selected by established poets.
This year's winners are:
Julie Carr of Denver for Sarah—Of Fragments and Lines, selected by Eileen Myles and to be published by Coffee House Press
Colin Cheney of New York City for Here Be Monsters, selected by David Wojahn, and to be published by University of Georgia Press
Carrie Fountain of Austin, Texas, for Burn Lake, selected by Natasha Trethewey and to be published by Penguin Books
Erika Meitner of Blacksburg, Virginia, for Ideal Cities, selected by Paul Guest and to be published by HarperCollins
Jena Osman of Philadelphia for The Network, selected by Prageeta Sharma, and to be published by Fence Books
Each winner received one thousand dollars, and their winning books will be published during the summer of 2010.