Honors & Awards
Prizes Won
2013 Nautilus Award in Poetry: The Structure of Desire
2012 Old Red Kimono Paris Lake LaNelle Daniel Award in Poetry: “Restoration”
2012 Potomac Review Poetry Award: “Mendelssohn”
2012 The Inspired by Tagore Anthology Publication Prize (India): “Invitation”
2012 The Linnet’s Wings Audio Poetry Prize (Ireland): “Ocotillo Wells”
2011 Atlanta Review International Publication Prize: “Strawberries”
2011 Crucible Editors’ Poetry Prize: “Opera”
2010 Comment Magazine Poetry Award (Canada): “Another Look”
2010 Cutbank Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, judged by Major Jackson: “Pilgrimage”
2010 Lindberg Peace Foundation International Poetry for Peace Prize (Israel) judged by Mike Scheidemann, Jeffrey M. Green, and Hayim Abramson: “Kiste”
2010 National Hackney Literary Award in Poetry: “Redwood Wave”
2010 Poetry Society of Virginia Brodie Herndon, and Carleton Drewry Awards, judged by Bruce Guernsey, Lucinda Roy: “Prayer,” “Evanescence”
1996 Hammond Cultural Foundation Poetry Award, Southeastern Louisiana University: “Carnival”
Paris/Atlantic Young Writers Award, American University in Paris (France): Young Man With Three Rooks
Commendation & Runner-Up
2013 Casey Shay Press Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize: Charimata Canticle
2013 New York Beach Book Festival: The Structure of Desire
2012 Blue Earth Review Flash Fiction Award: “Ardor”
2012 Common Ground Review Poetry Prize: “Sorceress”
2012 Excel for Charity Swale Life Poetry Prize (UK): “Mousetrap”
2012 Oberon Poetry Prize: “Monte Cinto”
2011 Anthropology and Humanism Ethnographic Poetry Prize: “Yungas Valley”
2011 Appalachian Arts Center Heritage Writers Symposium Writing Award: “Kudzu”
2011 Burning Bush Poetry Journal Poetry Prize: “Unsheltered”
2011 Cyclamens and Swords Poetry Prize (Israel): “Ortolanus”
2011 Excel for Charity’s Stepping Stones Nigeria Poetry Prize: “Everything is Indestructible”
2011 Munster Literature Centre Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Prize (Ireland): “Evanescence”
2011 Old Red Kimono Paris Lake Poetry Award: “Past Solstice”
2011 Ravenna Press Cathlamet Prize for Poetry: Rainbow Bridge
2011 Stepping Stones Excel for Charity Nigeria Poetry Competition: “Everything is Indestructible”
2011 String Poet Award: “Visionary”
2010 Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize, The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences, UMass Boston
2010 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, Open International Entry, The Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Warwick, (UK): “Five Years”
2010 Hong Kong University Poetry Book Prize (China): Jewel Tones
2010 Lindberg Peace Foundation International Poetry for Peace Prize (Israel): “Gacela of the Rockdove”
2010 Little Red Tree Press International Poetry Prize: “On Learning How to Read”
2010 Sentinel Literature Festival Poetry Prize (UK) Highly Commended: “Lark Mirror”
2010 Yeovil Literary Prize (UK) Highly Commended: “Interlace”
2009 Comment Magazine Poetry Contest (Canada): “Curriculum”
Honorable Mention
2011 Bayou Magazine Kay Murphy Editor’s Prize in Poetry: “Love in the Graveyard”
2011 Prism Review Poetry Award: “Routing”
2011 Unbound Press Short Story Award (Glasgow): “Saaki”
2010 Literal Latté Food Verse Award: “Fritillary”
2010 Prairie Fire Magazine Banff Centre Bliss Carman Poetry Award (Canada): “Aubade”
2010 Utmost Christian Writers Poetry Award (Canada): “Chaplet of Our Lady XX”
Finalist
2013 Bethesda Literary Festival Poetry Award: “Saffron”
2013 Flash Mob Competition: “Remembrance”
2012 Hungry Hill Writing Short Short Story Competition (Ireland): “Feral”
2012 Rita Dove Poetry Award, Salem College: “Fisher”
2012 Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship, Concordia University (Canada)
2012 Tartt First Fiction Book Award: Coloratura: A Novel in Fugue
2012 Unbound Press & Spilling Ink Review Flash Fiction Prize (Scotland): “Coloratura”
2011 XXXI Premio Fernando Rielo de Poesía Mïsitca (Fernando Rielo World Prize for Mystical Poetry, Spain): Journey to the Interior
2011 Arc Poetry Magazine Poem of the Year Contest (Canada): “Lark Mirror”
2011 Big Muddy Wilda Hearne Flash Fiction Contest: “Nerolli”
2011 Broad River Review Poetry Competition: “Mendelssohn”
2011 Cha: An Asian Literary Journal Fine Tea Competition (China): “Art as architecture, poem as dwelling place: Arthur Leung’s ‘Earthen Houses'”
2011 Greensboro Review Robert Watson Literary Prize in Poetry
2011 Heartland Review Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize Competition: “Flow”
2011 HOW Journal Poetry Competition
2011 Newport Review Flash Fiction Competition: “Neroli” “Feral”
2011 River & Sound Review Duckabush Poetry Competition: “Fish”
2011 Sow’s Ear Poetry Review Chapbook Competition: Coloratura
2011 Sow’s Ear Poetry Review Poetry Competition: “Infidelity”
2011 Spilling Ink Review Short Story Prize Competition (UK): “Origins”
2011 Spirit First Meditation Poetry Competition: “Compline,” “Night in the Garden”
2011 Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship in Poetry Competition (Canada)
2011 Unbound Press Best Novel Award Competition (UK): Coloratura
2011 Words & Images Betsy Sholl Award Competition: “Gris-Gris”
2010 Aesthetica Creative Works Competition (UK): “Talavera”
2010 Appalachian Arts Center Heritage Writers Symposium Writing Contest: “All Souls, At Dawn”
2010 Arts & Letters Rumi Prize in Poetry Competition
2010 Bloodroot Literary Magazine Poetry Contest: “Somnambulist”
2010 Dallas Poets Community Annual Chapbook Competition: Sleeping Circles
2010 Hong Kong University Poetry Book Prize (China): Jewel Tones
2010 Hunger Mountain Ruth Stone Prize in Poetry Competition: “Four Handed Lute”
2010 Loyola University of Maryland Apprentice House Chapbook Contest: After the Thunderstorm
2010 Permafrost Midnight Sun Poetry Chapbook Contest: Rainbow Bridge
2010 Southwestern Review Morton Marr Poetry Prize Competition
2010 Plan B Press Poetry Chapbook Contest: Singing Lessons
2010 Poetry Society of California James MacWhinney Award for Blank Verse Iambic Pentameter: “Entanglements”
2010 The Plough Prize Open Poetry Competition (UK): “Routing”
2010 River Styx International Poetry Contest
2010 Southeast Review Poetry Contest: “Continuity”
2010 Spire Press Annual Chapbook Contest: The Language of Birds
2010 Spring Garden Press Robert Watson Poetry Award Competition: Carved Ornaments
2010 Summer Literary Seminars Fellowship in Poetry Competition (Canada)
2010 Vassar Miller Book Prize in Poetry, University of North Texas Press
2010 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society: “Love in the Graveyard”
2009 XXIX Premio Fernando Rielo de Poesía Mïsitca (Fernando Rielo World Prize for Mystical Poetry, Spain): Chaplet of Our Lady
2009 Southwestern Review Morton Marr Poetry Prize Competition
1997 “Discovery” / The Nation Joan Leiman Jacobson Poetry Prize, Unterburg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y
Other Honors
2013 Pushcart Nomination: Flash Frontier: “Somnambulist,”
2013 Pushcart Nomination: Ballard Street Poetry Journal: “The Appeal of Emptiness”
2013 Flash Fiction Chronicle’s Short Story Month List of Great Stories: “Somnombulist”
2011 Pushcart Nomination: Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (China): “Silk Road”
2011 Pushcart Nomination: StepAway: “Promenade”
2011 Pushcart Nomination: String Poet: “Visionary”
2011 Pushcart Nomination: THIS Literary Magazine: “On Possibilities”
2011 Pushcart Nomination: Valparaiso Fiction Review: “Requiem”
2011 Best of the Net nomination: Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (China): “Rainbow Bridge”
2010 Best of the Web nomination: New Verse News: “Tracking the Hurricane”
2010 Best of the Net nomination: Umbrella: A Journal of Poetry and Kindred Prose: “Möbius”
Fellowship in Creative Writing: Boston University