The 2010 Poetry Prize was Flatmancrooked’s first venture into the land of poetics and, thus far, it’s been extremely rewarding. So, the process went something like this. We opened for submissions in November, 2009. We closed in January, 2010, and received about ten-times the entries we were expecting. With the guidance of this project’s editor, Josh Neely, and publisher, Steve Owen, we read thousands of entries and whittle (not to be confused with “widdle,” and for good reason) them down first to the semi-finalists (these poets will all be included in Flatmancrooked’s Slim Anthology of Contemporary Poetics – 2010, to be released this summer), and then the finalists. Those poems were then sent to our guest judge, author Mary Karr. After careful deliberation, she has chosen our top three, and the recipients of the various honorariums. And the winners are . . .
2nd Runner Up - Sarah Stripling, for her poem ‘Stories’
Sarah’s poem will be published in the forthcoming Flatmancrooked Slim Anthology of Contemporary Poetics and she will be noted as the 2nd Runner-Up for the 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize. She will also be awarded a $100 honorarium. She is currently at work on a manuscript and can be reached here.
1st Runner Up - Rebecca van Laer, for her poem ‘Dorothy Comes Home From Work’
Rebecca’s poem will be published in the forthcoming Flatmancrooked Slim Anthology of Contemporary Poetics and she will be noted as the 1st Runner-Up for the 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize. She will also be awarded a $300 honorarium. More of Rebecca’s work can be found in a chapbook of her work to be published by Amsterdam Press in late 2010.
2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize Recipient
Listen to Emily receiving the news.
Emily Pulfer-Terino grew up in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, where she currently lives and teaches English at a girls boarding school. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. This is her first publication, outside university. As the recipient of the 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize Emily’s poem will be published in the forthcoming Flatmancrooked Slim Anthology of Contemporary Poetics and she will be noted as the 2010 Flatmancrooked Poetry Prize winner. She will also be awarded a $500 honorarium, and receive an invitation to Flatmancrooked and Opium Magazine’s Night One Party at AWP Denver (a private industry party for editors and publishing industry executives).
Flatmancrooked’s blogs will return on January 4th, 2010 with brand new content from the authors at 
We made our official announcement about the 
Never has the Flatmancrooked editorial staff been so overwhelmed with amazing work. Selecting the top ten entries was insanely difficult, but the judging is out of our hands, now: we’ve sent the final stories to Aimee Bender for judging. Aimee will read the stories. In mid-October we will announce who she’s selected as the recipient of the Flatmancrooked Prize (for Excellent Writing Done During a Period of Great Fiscal Renewal), as well as the 1st and 2nd runners-up. All ten of these authors will be featured in the next print anthology, due out in early November. Here’s the list in alphabetical order: