Beth Copeland named 2017 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize winner

Beth Copeland, of Gibson, N.C., has been named the winner of the 2017 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize for her manuscript, "Blue Honey."

The prize was presented Dec. 9 at the Dogfish Inn in Lewes by Andrew Greeley, innkeeper. Her award consisted of publication of her manuscript by Broadkill River Press, 10 copies of the published book, $500 in prize money, two cases of Dogfish Head beer and a two-night stay at the Dogfish Inn.

Judges for this year's contest were Christopher Salerno of William Paterson University in New Jersey, Destiny O. Birdsong of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and Michael Dwayne Smith of Mojave River Press in California.

Copeland is the daughter of missionaries and was born in Japan. She received her master of fine arts degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and teaches at St. Andrew's University in North Carolina. Her two previous full-length books of poetry are "Traveling Through Glass," which won the 1999 Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Award, and "Transcendental Telemarketer."

Before the winner was announced Jamie Brown, editor and publisher of Broadkill River Press, gave a brief reading, as did Sherry Chappelle, 2011 DFH winner for "Salmagundi," followed by Linda Blaskey, 2008 winner for "Farm."

Finalists for this year's contest are CL Bledsoe of Virginia for "Driving Around, Looking in Other People's Windows;" Ken Pobo of Pennsylvani, for "Dindi Expecting Snow;" Adam Tamashasky of Maryland for "Meteor;" Kathy Ackerman of North Carolina for "A Quarrel of Atoms;" and Nicole Heneveld of New York for "The Fragility of Spines."

The Dogfish Head Poetry Prize is in its 15th year and was created by Sam Calagione, CEO of Dogfish Head, and a literature major in college, and Jamie Brown, of Broadkill River Press. The contest is open to residents of North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and District of Columbia. Publication of the winning manuscript is supported by The Cape Gazette.

To order copies of "Blue Honey" at $17.95, go to www.thebroadkillriverpress.webs.com.

Here is one of Copeland’s poems from her Blue Honey manuscript:

Water into Wine

My octogenarian Baptist parents wouldn’t
know Rothschild from rotgut but love a little

vino before bed. She sips a thimble
sized cup and titters, I’m tipsy, while he

bellows, Bottom’s up! and chugs
Two Buck Chuck. She hides

her illicit cache in the cupboard beneath
the steel sink. What if church

members drop by and spy Richard’s Wild
Irish Rose, Ripple, or Pagan

Pink? After supper, they recline
in matching velour Lazy-Boys, lost

in Matlock and Dynasty, drowsy
with dreams of mountain 

streams and jugs of sweet muscadine.