2023 Contest Opens 8/1 * BIWOC Poet Spotlight * Melody S. Gee "The Story of My Book"

PUBLISHING NEW WOMEN POETS SINCE 1997

* Submissions Opening on August 1st *

The 2023 Perugia Press Prize contest opens for submissions 8/1!

The prize is for a first or second full-length book of poetry by a woman.

Publication of the winning manuscript comes with

$1,000, author copies, and other support from the press.

Details and guidelines are available on our website

We're pleased to continue a fee structure for our contest that

gives poets options on how they submit their work and makes

the contest more accessible to all. Read more on our blog.

We look forward to reading your work!

Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight

July 2022 Poet: Claire Meuschke

Lessen

I learned English on top of an estimated

fifty buried languages

I can dig just inches down and find

obsidian and shells

original daily life

a plum tree produced

overseas thus underdeveloped plums

through language I learned

to disembody my own body

my head hurts as if severed

I learned to relate surroundings to the self

my older sister my twin brother

my best friend my plum tree

my sister ran away

his hands around her neck

see this without eyes

I can possess

I can make a claim

sister brother friend tree

let’s let what surrounds surround

from Upend (Noemi Press)

To read more about this poet and her work, check out our blog.

Melody S. Gee, author of Each Crumbling House,

& her "The Story of My Book" blog post:

Gee talks about the genesis of her Perugia book, writing in multiple genres, converting to Catholicism, her new chapbook

The Convert's Heart is Good to Eat (Driftwood Press, 2022), mothering, and more. Check it out to see why Perugia is a good home for her collection and why it might be one for yours!

PERUGIA PRESS

PO Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062