The 2024 Debut Chapbook Winner and Finalists
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
We made a list, we checked it twice. It was the 2024 Debut Chapbook Contest. So we checked it thrice.
There were some difficult decisions, and some amazing manuscripts. Our incredible team made it through many (many) manuscripts, wrote feedback, and engaged wiht poems from all over the world. We learned about perspectives from all over the world, we were surprised sometimes, and we were sad sometimes. We read poems we loved and poems that made us feel. And of course, we’d like to give a big thanks to Guest Judge NancyMiller Gomez, who made the final call. Our winner will be receiving $2,000, and publication of their chapbook will be available in fall of 2025. Let’s all give a big congratulations to….
WINNER
Jessie Keary
Explaining a Dress: Transfeminine Erasure and Vindicatuon
Guest Judge Nancy Miller Gomez comments:
Using the form of erasure, the poet introduces us to a chorus of transfeminine people erased from history. Erasure is always an act of oppression. But in using erasure as a poetic technique the collection becomes a powerful historical reckoning that is complex and poignant and serves as both a tribute to and a vindication of the lives erased.
While every poem is elegantly crafted and vividly stands on its own, the curated selection of headlines and articles from which each was carved creates a layered metacommentary, a compelling testament I couldn’t look away from. Explaining a Dress is a bold, timely and important collection.
Here’s a bit of the work—
Mary Jenny waltzed
up to the station
and stated the “disguise”
had been assumed because
she could get along better
in this weary world.
from “Petticoats (Montgomery, AL, 1889)”
And a little about our winner while we’re at it—
Jessie Keary [he/they] is a queer, trans, Midwestern writer with too many hobbies. For the last few years, he’s been working on a full collection of erasure poetry using archived, US newspaper articles about transgender people from the 1860s-1960s. The language of gender identity has evolved, which is often weaponized, as if the experience of being trans is as new as some of the language. Through poetry, Jessie strives to honor the gender-expansive people who have always existed and always will. Their poetry can also be found in Transmasculine Poetics (Sundress Publications), Sweeter Voices Still (Belt Publishing), and various corners of the internet.
The Finalists
Dawn Dupler
Jill Talbot
CJ Scruton
Erik Jonah
Alex Baskin
Debbie Feit
Marc Anthony Valle
Rachel Parry
Eileen Oldag
Thank you finalists, submitters, readers, Jessie, Nancy, editors, image makers, website coders, social media managers, everyone who has made this possible. And look out for the finished book, which will be out in the fall!
