Announcing the winner and runners-up for the fourth annual Bird In Your Hands Prize…
Winner
“Her, and those before her.” by Danielle Shandiin Emerson
Danielle Shandiin Emerson is a Diné writer from Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Tłaashchi’i (Red Cheek People Clan), born for Ta’neezaahníí (Tangled People Clan). She has a B.A. in Education Studies and a B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University. Danielle writes fiction, poetry, plays, and creative essays. Her work centers Diné culture, perspectives, and personal narratives.
Runners-up
“[Refugee]
Joy must be implicated
from exchanges of desolation //
In between the heaves of heartbreak,
it is curated outside the walls of a museum, a university, a
home.” by Anastasia Ibrahim
Anastasia Ibrahim is an Indigenous Coptic-Egyptian poet and writer whose work seeks to radicalize love, belonging, kinship and identity. She’s the two-time president of the Middle East North African Students Association (MENA) at Yale, and the first person to form a coalition for, and draft, a Yale Senate Bill to include MENA as a checkbox on the common application. She served as the MENA student representative in the Department of Justice vs. Yale case and is a former writer and board member of Coptic Voice—the only US-based writing platform for indigenous Egyptian writers (Coptics).
“Ode to Crepuscular Creatures” by Bertha Isabel Crombet
Bertha Isabel Crombet was born in a tiny town on a hill in Santiago, Cuba, but lived in Miami for twenty-one years, where she received my MFA in Poetry from Florida International University. She’s been published in Black Warrior Review, New Delta Review, and others. Currently, she’s a Doctoral Candidate in Creative Writing at Florida State University.
Read the winning works in Issue 30 of Thin Air Magazine (forthcoming February 2024)!
This year’s contest was judged by Kinsale Drake. Kinsale Drake (Diné) is a 23-year-old poet/editor/playwright whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Best New Poets, Poets.org, Poetry Northwest, The Slowdown, Black Warrior Review, Teen Vogue, MTV, NYLON, TIME, NPR, and elsewhere. Her first book, THE SKY WAS ONCE A DARK BLANKET (University of Georgia Press, 2024), won the 2023 National Poetry Series. She teaches mental health and storytelling programming for Native youth and is the founder of Changing Wxman Collective & NDN Girls Book Club. She recently graduated from Yale University in Fall 2022.
Past Contests
2023 Contest (3rd Annual)
Judged by Dr. Samir Talib. Samir Talib got his BA in English in 2002 and his MA in 2005 in the field of English Literature/Renaissance Drama. In 2010, he joined the University of Exeter/UK for a PhD in the field of Renaissance studies. He has been teaching courses in Drama, Poetry and Literary criticism at the University of Basrah since 2005. He is interested in the field of the philosophy of literature, as well as contemporary literary and cultural theory, especially in the field of cultural studies and popular culture.
Winner
Kenneth Chacón – “A Love Supreme; Or, Giant Steps”
Runners-up
Javeria Hasnain – “The Poets,” “Self Portrait as a God in the Shower,” “Standing in Line”
Emily Lupita – “Abuelo’s Flowers,” “Vision”
2022 Contest (2nd Annual)
Judged by Raquel Gutiérrez. Raquel Gutierrez is an arts critic/writer, poet and educator. Born and raised in Los Angeles Gutierrez is a 2021 recipient of the Rabkin Prize in Arts Journalism, as well as a 2017 recipient of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Her/Their writing has recently appeared in or is forthcoming in Art In America, NPR Music, Places Journal, and The Georgia Review. Gutierrez is Visiting Faculty in the English department at the University of California, Riverside and is Program Faculty for Oregon State University-Cascades Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program. Her/Their first book of prose, Brown Neon, is an ekphrastic memoir that considers what it means to be a Latinx artist during the Trump era and will be published by Coffee House Press, June, 2022. Gutierrez currently resides in Tucson, Arizona.
Winner
Sylee Gore – “I Don’t Make the Rules”
Runners-up
Nnadi Samuel – “Poems Like This Refuse Sound, My Cramp Bears Music Enough”
Vinnie Lopez – “New Folds”
2021 Contest (Inaugural)
Judged by Jake Skeets. Jake Skeets is the author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, winner of the National Poetry Series, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, American Book Award, and Whiting Award. He is from the Navajo Nation and teaches at the University of Oklahoma.
Winner
Isa Guzman – “La Ángel De First Responders [Woodhull Hospital]”
Runners-up
Sneha Subramanian Kanta – “Caeusura”
Kit Tempo – “Chronic Wanting”
Thin Air 