The 2024 “(Not) In Love” Tanka Challenge Winners & Finalists!
Please join us in congratulating the winner of Frontier Poetry‘s “(Not) In Love” Tanka Challenge, Diana Tokaji and her winning tanka “Physics Lesson: How a Girl Stores Power.” The Frontier Poetry team is so grateful for the unprecedented amount of participants in this challenge. We loved reading through the many wonderful and creative submissions and greatly appreciate your patience as we made our (very tough) decisions.
Diana Tokaji has been selected for the First Place $500 prize by our editorial team. Jonathan Carroll was selected as the second place winner and Rina Malagayo Alluri as the third place winner. We look forward to publishing the winners throughout the month of July!
WINNER
Diana Tokaji
“Physics Lesson: How a Girl Stores Power”
To be published on July 31, 2024
Diana Tokaji is a performance artist and author of SIX WOMEN IN A CELL, winner of the 2021 Best Indie Book Award/Nonfiction; and SURVIVING ASSAULT, 2021 Next Generation Indie Book finalist. Awarded the Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Prize judged by Richard Blanco in 2020, she is published in The Quarry, Bellevue Literary Review, Tiferet, Author, The New Guard (2019 poetry finalist), Solstice Literary Magazine (2022 essay finalist), Bourgeon Literary, The Mid-Atlantic Review, and in parenting rags, humor anthologies, feminist presses, and a bus in Virginia that boasts her 2023 winning poem. A certified yoga therapist, Diana specializes in trauma care with a strength-focused approach. She is at work on two collections: BOOK OF ESSAYS BEFORE I DIE; and SPOKE – Poems of Squid, Cellmates, Love.
2nd Place
Jonathan Carroll
“I Was Once”
To be published on July 24, 2024
Jonathan Carroll is a Southern-born Black nonbinary poet living and working in Seattle, WA.
3rd Place
Rina Malagayo Alluri
“Seeds of Sorrow”
To be published on July 17, 2024
Rina Malagayo Alluri (she/her) has been rooted, uprooted and replanted in various soils. She is a peace scholar, yoga practitioner and mother to two headstrong children. Her poetry weaves together experiences of (de)coloniality, diasporic identities and relationships that form/unform. You can find her work in publications such as: Arlington Literary Journal (ArLiJo), Breadfruit mag, Beyond Words Magazine, Carnation Zine, Sunday Mornings at the River, The Hemlock Journal and Yellow Arrow Publishing.
The Finalists
Rebecca Bridge
Anne Calajoe
Alexander Groff
Faith Kearns
Sammy Lê
Sam Sobel
Sherry Stratton
The Longlist
Jackson Benson
Andrea Breen
Lindsey Brown
Colin Cutler
Kali Dudley
Robin Gabbert
Angela Januzzi
Kat Karoly
Sarah Key
Allegra Keys
Anicca Liu
Ellen Lutnick
Lucinda MacKethan
John Maher
Megan Rilkoff
Cintia Santana
Samantha Silvestri
Jonah Valdez
Stella Wong
