Hermit Crab Challenge First Place Winner: “ni·loo (a personal definition)” by Joshua Lavender
Warm congratulations to the winner of our Hermit Crab Challenge, Joshua Lavender!
“ni·loo (a personal definition)” caught our attention for its unique take on one of the most tried-and-true hermit crab forms, the dictionary entry. While this is a very common vehicle for this type of poem, Lavender is able to make it new again with the vivid imagery and stunning lyricism that he introduces into the poem, along with a kind of circling, repetitive and almost lulling kind of internal logic that leaves the reader in a kind of dizzy haze as they try to make sense of the pieces Lavender has provided us. There is a story here, but we don’t get all of it, just the gestural sense, the smudges of fingerprints left on a window. We see the shadow but we don’t see who has created such a shape. The curious and thrilling unknown makes this poem memorable and strange and exciting and each time we return to it, we find or feel something new.
A native of south Georgia, Joshua Lavender (he/him) studied English at Georgia College, where he twice won the Academy of American Poets University Prize, and earned an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland. His poems have appeared in Salvation South, Rust & Moth, and The Southern Poetry Anthology (vol. 5: Georgia). He was a finalist for the Orison Anthology Award in Poetry in 2020. His interviews with other poets have appeared in Diode and Michigan Quarterly Review Online. His memoir, Fool in the Woods, appears at foolinthewoods.substack.com, and Quibble, a science fiction novel about transhumanism, is in serial publication at singulardream.substack.com.
