Afterword: Inheritance Author’s Bio Maurya Kerr is a bay area-based writer, educator, and artist. Maurya’s poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Blue River Review, River Heron Review, Inverted Syntax, Oyster River Pages, Chestnut Review, Mason Jar Press Journal, Harbor Review, and The Future of Black: A […]
Heather White | Excerpt from DES MONSTERAS, Winner of the 2021 Vallum Chapbook Award
Excerpt from DES MONSTERAS signal bars | wi-fi | time | headphones | battery <DES MONSTERAS …….share | send To lose someone when they, or you, are still new is to lose whatever was real and also all the possibilities. In my first year my mother was often whisked to hospital. I assume that […]
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD 2021 FINALIST | Nisha Patel | THIS IS NOT A DISORDER
Nisha Patel is an award-winning queer and disabled artist. She was the City of Edmonton’s 8th Poet Laureate, and the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion. She currently works as the 2021 Regional Writer in Residence. She is a recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund Award and the University of Alberta Alumni Award of Excellence. Her debut collection COCONUT is available now at Glass Bookshop. You can find her at nishapatel.ca.
Nisha Patel was one of the finalist of the 2021 Vallum Chapbook Award for her chapbook Not a Disorder.
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD 2021 HONOURABLE MENTION WINNER | Maurya Kerr | TOMMY NOUN.
ORION My boy came into the room and said, Mom, you are the hound, Dad is the hunter, and I am the— but he couldn’t remember, so stood there, silent. I wanted to know, but forgot how to speak, form my lips into language, started to say dear or hart or morn—even though I knew […]
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD 2021 FINALIST | Pamela Porter | FIND WHAT HE CAN OF HIS HOME: ELEGY FOR PATRICK LANE
WHAT IS WORN IS WHAT HAS LIVED The wild rose was full with winter birds settled on the risen snow. Chickadee, nuthatch, junco. And in another house, your dying nearly complete. And the air thickening with snow, but the birds remained. How the heart closes a door so silently, nothing disturbs the quiet. And you […]
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD 2021 FINALIST | Emma Rhodes | QUEER/JOY
TAPAS The first time I thought I was queer was after kissing my best friend in 7th grade. Or maybe …………………….. it was when I ate an apple. ……………………………………… The curve of the core and ……………………………………… seed so hidden and ……………………………………… poisonous. Maybe …………………….. it was drinking tea ……………………………………… with another friend and playing chess. […]
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD 2021 FINALIST | Sally Quon | LAID WASTE
ONE MORE MOUNTAIN SUNRISE One more mountain sunrise, golden light, clouds of peach and lilac. The forest calls – I answer. Road dust and moss, pinecones and birdsong. I was going to write a poem for you. Instead, I chose one more mountain sunrise. Sally Quon is a back-country blogger, dirt-road diva, and teller […]
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD WINNER 2021 | Heather White | DES MONSTERAS
DES MONSTERAS, excerpt signal bars | wi-fi | time | headphones | battery <DES MONSTERAS share | send We came off the mountain and I was still holding the stick I’d used to prod at the fire and as a baton to conduct us, singing; also to point at our paths and the solstice […]
VALLUM CHAPBOOK AWARD 2021 FINALIST | Malcolm Sanger | STONE SERIES
if the forest heard is …………… it’s mirrors …. over ………………offering ………. until
a ….. jungle ….. here ……………. turn …………………………………… .dressed
leaping in ………………………………………………………………………. … mistakes
…………………………………………… are, as they all say ………………. embarrassed
…………………………………………… over—whelming …………………..mushrooms
…………………………………………………………………………………………… images