The grand winner is:

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ANDY BETZ – AU REVOIR

Andy Betz has tutored and taught in excess of 40 years. He lives in 1974 and has been married for 29 years. His works are found everywhere a search engine operates.

Congratulations Andy! You’ve done a marvelous job in your literary piece. Well done.

A big round of applause for our runner-ups.

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The first runner-up is:

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DAMIAN WHITE – WE LOCKED EYES

After graduating from Davidson College and enduring two bouts of homelessness, the author rekindled his love for poetry and found solace in the pen. He was born in Columbus, Ohio to young African American parents and raised by his mother. When he left a Ph.D. program in 2014, after winning the Ford and National Science Foundation Fellowships, he erupted in tears as the uncertainty of the future agonized him. Though he’d published a few peer-reviewed sociology papers, he bore an insatiable craving for expressing himself creatively. After 7 years, he wrote I Made A Place For You as a triumph over the suffering that nearly took my life away several times. He is a loving husband, stepfather, son, nephew, grandson, and author.

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The second runner-up is:

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BRIAN YAPKO – THE EYES OF THE WILLOW

Brian Yapko is a lawyer whose poems have appeared in multiple publications, including Prometheus Dreaming, Cagibi, Poetica, Grand Little Things, Hive Avenue, the Society of Classical Poets, Chained Muse, Tempered Runes, Garfield Lake Review, Sparks of Calliope, Abstract Elephant and others. His debut science fiction novel, El Nuevo Mundo, will be published in Summer, 2022 by Rebel Satori Press. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Let’s have a big spherical of applause for our top finalists:

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DARBY JONES – CATHEDRAL

Darby Jones is an emerging anthropologist and poet studying at the University of Queensland. In 2021, he was selected as UQ’s inaugural Humanities and Social Sciences Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholar. Inspired by the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Siken, and Bret Easton Ellis, Darby’s poetry contemplates the fragility of the human condition from a queer perspective.

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GAVIN BOURKE – LIVING MYSELF TO DEATH

Gavin Bourke grew up in the suburb of Tallaght in West Dublin. Married to Annemarie living in County Meath, he holds a B.A. in Humanities from Dublin City University, an M.A. Degree in Modern Drama Studies, and a Higher Diploma in Information Studies from University College Dublin. His work broadly covers nature, time, memory, addiction, mental health, human relationships, the inner and outer life, creating meaning and purpose, politics, contemporary and historical social issues, injustice, the human situation, power and its abuse, absurdism, existentialism, human psychology, cognition, emotion and behaviour, truth and deception, the sociological imagination, illness, socio-economics, disability, inclusivity, human life, selfishness and its consequences as well as urban and rural life, personal autonomy, ethics, commerce, science, grand schemes and the technological life in English and to a lesser extent in the Irish Language.

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BRAD BUCHANAN – DAVID 8 UNREVISITIED

Brad Buchanan’s writings have appeared in nearly 200 journals, and he has also published three book-length collections of poetry: The Miracle Shirker (Poets Corner Press, 2005), Swimming the Mirror: Poems for My Daughter (Roan Press, 2008), and The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019). His most recent book is the prose memoir Living with Graft-Versus-Host Disease (Armin Lear Press, 2021); he has also published two academic books. Emeritus Professor of English at Sacramento State University, he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in February 2015, and underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016, which involved a lengthy recovery and temporary vision loss. He is currently in remission.

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MATTHEW HUMMER – KAIROS KRONOS KAOS

Matthew Hummer was born in a dead-end town in Pennsylvania. A narrow street of close homes by the tracks is called Broad Street. But, as kids, we believed that lie. Because a child sees the wideness of the world between fence and alley. The dim streetlights let us see the stars. https://scribenswriting.weebly.com/

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K.T. REID – SHADOW

K.T. Reid is a poet who believes that there are many overlooked burgeons for those who experience the ability to thrive when dealing with dark times in one’s life. K. T. Reid is an African-American male writer living in Texas. He hopes to have his first full length project/collection published early to mid-2023. The original pieces included in this submission are as follows: “Mavroneri,” “Hourglass,” “Shadow,” “Less Home,” and “The Onset.”

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HORIA POP – THE VOICE

He is a writer living in France. Works in the movie industry and hopefully will combine soon words with images.

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MARTHA JACKSON – SENTINEL

Lover of words and images and the grief that besets the soul. Poetry is pain written in stanzas. 30 years of experience in writing and performing poetry.

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TRACEY DEAN WIDELITZ – TONIGHT, I SAW YOU

Tracey Dean Widelitz is an emerging writer, poet, and photographer, and is the author of ‘A Heavenly World’, a forthcoming published children’s book. Her poetry has been published in Wingless Dreamer’s ‘Dreamstones of Summer’, ‘Dawn of the Day’, ‘Whispers of Pumpkin’ and ‘My Cityline’ Anthologies, and she was the Grand Winner of Wingless Dreamer’s ‘Dreamstones of Summer’ Poetry Contest. Her photographs appear in ‘Months to Years’ Winter 2022 edition and ‘Camas’ Winter 2021 edition literary magazines and Las Lagunas Art Gallery upcoming February show ‘Captured’ (Photography) 2022-Online Edition. Visit her website at https://www.traceydeanwidelitz.com

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TERRY BRINKMAN – DEAD BUTTERFLIES

Terry Has been painting for over forty five years. Has Five Amazon E- Books. Poems in Rue Scribe, Tiny Seed. Winamop, Snapdragon Journal, Poets Choice, Adelaide Magazine, Variant, the Writing Disorder, Ink Pantry, In Parentheses, Ariel Chat, New Ulster, Glove, and in Pamp-le-mousse, North Dakota Quarterly, Barzakh, Urban Arts, Wingless Dreamer, LKMNDS and Milk Carton Press.

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T.M. HUDENBURG – FLABLE OF ANCIENTS

T. M. Hudenburg is a writer who works and resides by the coast