Congrats Janine Lever - Winner of the Plath/Poe Contest! - Tom Woody's Blog

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this very difficult contest theme. Most of the poems were Poe-heavy, which will be really helpful if I run a Poe contest (stay tuned). What was especially important for this contest was to speak in Plath's "voice" but with a touch of Poe's taste for the macabre. Does this seem confusing? In the end, after reading thirty-five poems, I found myself favoring the Plath voice over the Poe. (But that's not we he asked for!) Such is the nature of poetry. How we begin is not always how we end. In the grand finale, what moves us personally is what matters most. Of course, judging is always subjective and some of you may feel that better choices were available, and that's cool. As I have said before, we're all amateurs here, doing the best we can. I certainly include myself in that category. Why not check out all six top entries and judge for yourself? They are all superb in their own right.

Tommy