My poem won a contest!

I am one of six winners of the Environmental (In)justice in Mni Sóta Maḳoce (Minnesota) Storytelling Contest presented by the University of St. Thomas Sustainable Communities Partnership and the Saint Paul Almanac. The contest sought submissions of poetry, nonfiction and fiction prose, visual art and/or video/audio work “that speak to the harsh realities of environmental injustice as well as ones that imagine an environmentally just future.”

My winning work is a new poem titled “Children of Michigan.” The poem and the works of the other five winners will be published on the Saint Paul Almanac and Sustainable Communities Partnership websites. The win also comes with a cash prize! This is the first time I’ve won a writing-based contest since I was a kid. I don’t enter many contests because most have entry fees. Those costs pile up, so I have to be very selective about any contests I enter; this one had no fee.

As soon as the poem is published, I’ll be posting about it in my blog with links.