Knockout Co-Editor Jeremy Halinen Interviewed on Joe Milford's Poetry Show!

2009 International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize Results Announced

We're pleased to announce the results of the 2009 International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize. First of all, thank you to everyone who entered--it was an exciting and difficult process to narrow down the field, and we were quite impressed with the quality of the work we received. Thanks are also in order to Carl Phillips, who was gracious enough to judge the contest. In all, there were 53 entries to the 2009 International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize, for a total of 266 poems. Of these, 37 were semifinalists, nine finalists, three runners-up, and three winners.

We've also got exciting news about the 2010 International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize: C. Dale Young will serve as the final judge for the 2010 Prize. Stay tuned for complete contest information; we'll have it online by October at the latest.

Finally, Knockout is re-opening to submissions on September 1st; please feel free to send some work our way!

See below for a complete list of the 2009 prize winners, runners-up, finalists and semi-finalists:

WINNERS (selected by Carl Phillips)

First place winner: Occupation* (Kelly Madigan Erlandson)

Second place winner: Archaic Bronze** (Christian Gullette)

Third place winner: Wood*** (Larry Bradley)

* For her winning poem, Kelly Madigan Erlandson will receive (1) a $300 gift certificate to Powell’s Books, (2) publication in the fourth issue of Knockout Literary Magazine, due out in 2010, and (3) five copies of the issue. All entrants will receive a copy of the issue. Please notify Knockout (via an email to knockoutrsprize@gmail.com) of any postal address changes to ensure you receive your copy.

** For his winning poem, Christian Gullette will receive (1) a $50 gift certificate to Powell’s Books, (2) publication in the fourth issue of Knockout, and (3) two copies of the issue.

*** For his winning poem, Larry Bradley will receive (1) a $25 gift certificate to Powell’s Books, (2) publication in the fourth issue of Knockout, and (3) two copies of the issue.

RUNNERS-UP (selected by Carl Phillips)

First runner-up: Modern Ripple**** (Rickey Laurentiis)

Second runner-up: August, near Arles**** (Richard Foerster)

Third runner-up: Faggot**** (Rickey Laurentiis)

FINALISTS (in alphabetical order by poem title, selected by Knockout’s editors)

Fourteen (Lauren K. Alleyne)

He Calls Her Etsy (Karen Schubert)

Mirror God (Rickey Laurentiis)

Mother Loved to Joke (Joe Eldridge)

Muster (Kelly Madigan Erlandson)

The Reproduction of Desire (Julie R. Enszer)

Still Birth, September 22 (Karsten Piper)

There’s Always One on the Driveway, Featherless, (Diane Seuss)

Touch (L. Lamar Wilson)

SEMIFINALISTS (in alphabetical order by poem title, selected by Knockout’s editors)

Temp Work (Emily Van Kley)

Argo Navis (Jory Michelson)

Ars Poetica: Nov. 7, 2008 (L. Lamar Wilson)

Being Young (Kelly Madigan Erlandson)

Biting on Ginger (Chip Livingston)

The Café by Foujita (Christian Gullette)

Chip & Nico (Chip Livingston)

Cutlery Tale (P. Hurshell)

Daphne (Richard Foerster)

Dear Batman (Christian Gullette)

The Face of It: A Meditation on an HIV/AIDS Poster on the A-train (Lauren K. Alleyne)

The Gift of Flight (Chip Livingston)

Going Through Life Wearing a Bathing Suit and Helmet (Amy McLennan)

He Looks at Clouds (Joe Eldridge)

How It Touches Us (Lauren K. Alleyne)

Hunting Morels (Christopher Hennessy)

Impersonal Paragraph (J. Marcus Weekley)

Invocation (Binh Nguyen)

Love with the Beer Brewer (Ching-In Chen)

—Me Tangere**** (Rickey Laurentiis)

Mnemonic Device (Binh Nguyen)

Monument Avenue (Jeffery Berg)

One Explanation (Julie R. Enszer)

Otro Banda, The Other Side (Christian Gullette)

A Prayer for the Phlebotomist (L. Lamar Wilson)

Small Traffic (Emily Van Kley)

Surrender (Christopher Hennessy)

Tarry (L. Lamar Wilson)

“The Village Advocate” by an unknown Dutch Master, c. 1600 (Robert Kramer)

That the Body Wants (Lauren K. Alleyne)

To My Father’s Blue Tuxedo (Christopher Hennessy)

Unburdened (Christopher Phelps)

Vestiges [excerpt] (Phillip Brian Williams)

What I should Have Told the Homeless Man

in Cleveland Who Mistook Me for Mary’s Son (L. Lamar Wilson)

Where Ocean Meets Sky (Derrick Austin)

The Window (Suzanne Bottelli)

The Wrestler (Christian Gullette)

**** Knockout has offered to publish this poem in its fourth issue.

2010 International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize

Call for Submissions [coming soon]

Knockout Literary Magazine’s newest poetry contest, the International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize, aims to honor the memory and work of poet Reginald Shepherd, who left us on September 10, 2008. For more information on Reginald Shepherd’s life and work, visit his blog: reginaldshepherd.blogspot.com.

Carl Phillips was the final judge for the 2009 Prize. The complete entry guidelines for the 2010 Prize will be posted online at knockoutlit.org/rsprize.htm no later than October 2009. C. Dale Young will serve as the final judge for the 2010 Prize.

Knockout Gets Positive Review in Library Journal!

Brett here: Great news. Knockout got a positive review in Library Journal!

Check it out here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6660434.html?industryid=47384

Knockout Closed to Submissions Over the Summer

Dear Knockout Readers,

We've been getting lots and lots of submission, which is fantastic, but Knockout is a
two-man ship. (Perhaps a dinghy?) Jeremy and I therefore need the summer to focus on getting Knockout #3 out on time (Fall of 2009)and we need to go on a promoting binge for the 2009 International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize, which has a deadline of August 31, 2009.

For this reason, Knockout will not be considering unsolicited submissions from June to August this year. Any submissions received during this period will not be read, and we'll delete them. We'll begin taking submissions again on September 1.

Of course, rest assured that we will be accepting entries for the 2009 Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize. For guidelines, see www.knockoutlit.org/rsprize.htm.

Thanks for the submissions and for helping make KO great.

Reminder, Knockout Literary Magazine Reading at Nina's on June 3rd @ 7 PM

This Just In: Brett here, and I'm happy to announce that there will be a Knockout reading at Nina's Cafe on June 3, @ 7 PM. Brett will be reading from the 2nd issue--stay tuned about the rest of the line up!

Special Guests: STAY TUNED.
June 3 at 7pm
Nina's Cafe
Address: 165 Western Ave N, Saint Paul, MN 55102
Phone: (651) 292-9816

For now, here's a map of how to get to Nina's. The meantime, visit Nina's, it's a great place to visit, and if you need any added incentive, don't forget that Common Good Books is right below Nina's! (There's even a shortcut through Nina's to the bookstore!) Finally, MANY thanks to Todd Boss for helping us arrange the reading! Are you attending? RVSP here:


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Knockout Chosen "Best Literary Magazine of the Twin Cities of 2009" by The City Pages of Minneapolis-St. Paul

Great news—Knockout was selected as "Best Literary Magazine of the Twin Cities" of 2009 by The City Pages. And congratulations are in order to KO contributor Louis Jenkins, who was selected as best poet of 2008-2009.

Join Knockout on Gather!

Keep in touch.
And discover something new.
My stuff:
http://knockoutpoetry.gather.com »

Knockout Reading at Nina's Cafe, June 3, 7 PM

This Just In: Brett here, and I'm happy to announce that there will be a Knockout reading at Nina's Cafe on June 3, @ 7 PM. Brett will be reading from the 2nd issue--stay tuned about the rest of the line up!

Special Guests: STAY TUNED.
June 3 at 7pm
Nina's Cafe
Address: 165 Western Ave N, Saint Paul, MN 55102
Phone: (651) 292-9816

For now, here's a map of how to get to Nina's. The meantime, visit Nina's, it's a great place to visit, and if you need any added incentive, don't forget that Common Good Books is right below Nina's! (There's even a shortcut through Nina's to the bookstore!) Finally, MANY thanks to Todd Boss for helping us arrange the reading!


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Essay About Knockout on Gather!

I was prompted by the fine folks at Minnesota Public Radio's gather site to write a brief essay about Knockout (well, I don't know if they were looking for an essay, but it turned out that way). Whatever you want to call it, you can check it out here.

As a teaser, it's called: Adventures in Starting a Literary Magazine, Featuring: The World's Worst Salesman, Robert Bly Reconnaissance, and The Literary Death Match.

Let me know what you think.

Robert Bly Conference, April 16-19

I just got word that there's a Robert Bly conference coming up at the University of Minnesota in April. A number of fine MN writers will be there, including Mr. Bly himself, of course. Check out all the information at this site: http://staff.lib.umn.edu/communications/bly2009/

Speaking of, we've got a limited number of copies of Knockout #1 that Bly signed. If you're interested in one, send me a note at knockoutpoetry@gmail.com

A confession

OK, it's true. I grew up in the Internet age. Truth be told, I was on chat rooms in the late '90s (does anyone else remember the WBS chat network?) and embarassingly enough, I even got cyber-married when I was 13. Typing that makes me feel like some sort of strange polygamist. (Or maybe that's because I'm reading this.) But not to worry, I never consummated said cyber-marriage, and in retrospect, that's probably a good thing. (BTW, my online nickname at the time: Jesterjoker.)

In any case, while I was once on the up-and-up with technology, I'm now behind the times. Granted, I'm not as bad as my mother--she called me the other day and asked me why "Goggle" and "Yoho" were broken. Nevertheless, it does seem to run in the family.

Despite my apparent technological defects, I'm giving it the good old college (postgraduate?) try. Please help spread the word about Knockout if you can, take a look at our website, and link to us, wouldja?

It's alive!

OK folks, so check it out: First things first, we're brand new at this, so this blog should be changing quite a bit in the next few days. A few bits of tantalizing KO news:

(1) Todd Boss's first book, Yellowrocket, was just released by W.W. Norton. You can get the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Yellowrocket-Poems-Todd-Boss/dp/0393067688

Todd's also doing a pair of readings in the Bay Area next week. You can catch him here:

MONDAY 02-23-09 at 6:30 P.M.
AT BOOK PASSAGE, 1 FERRY BUILDING (NEIGHBORHOOD EMBARCADERO),
SAN FRANCISCO: http://www.bookpassage.com/

and here:

AT BLACK OAK BOOKS: TUESDAY 02-24-09 at 7:00 P.M. 1491 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley. http://www.blackoakbooks.com/

TODD BOSS: http://www.toddbosspoet.com/

(2) Tim Nolan's new book, The Sound Of It, was just released from the fine folks New Rivers Press. (Incidentially, Brett used to work there as an undergrad). You can pick the book up here: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Many-Voices-Project/dp/0898232414

Also check out: http://www.newriverspress.com/

(3) If that weren't enough, these two fine fellas were just nominated for a Minnesota Book Award in Poetry along with Heid Erdrich and KO-friend Margaret Hasse. Check out more about that here: http://www.thefriends.org/news.htm#21stfinalists

(4) This list isn't definitive by any means. I'll be updating this list as soon as I can.

(5) In case you didn't know, we're giving 5% of our proceeds from our second issue (which was just released) to charity. We're donating to The Trevor Project (the Trevor Project), an organization that seeks to prevent suicide in the GLBTQ population. Check 'em out: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/.

(6) To that end (and just for the fun of it) we designed a few Knockout T-shirts, magnets, buttons, and so on. Again, proceeds from these products will go to KO and to our associated causes. So pick one up. A few of the designs are just silly. For these, you may blame Brett. (Yes, he likes dinosaurs. Especially this one: http://www.cafepress.com/knockoutpoetry.358218131.)

Check them all out: www.cafepress.com/knockoutpoetry

--OK, that's it for now. And spread the word about KO. We're doing our best to do good.

--Brett