Stone Canoe / Veterans Writing Prize

I recently had the good fortune to have my poem “Army Wife” get double honors. It was published in the renowned New York journal Stone Canoe and also won that journal's Veterans Writing Prize for 2017. Here is the cover of the issue in which that poem appeared. And here is the poem. Army Wife The lieutenant from the Japanese Army twirled his Nambu pistol on his finger like a Hollywood Wild West gunslinger, interrogating my mother about what she knew and didn’t know. They dragged her two oldest brothers out into the Manila street, beheaded them in front of the Fajardo family mansion. Their bodies tossed into the garden to water the sampaguita flowers, the jasmine scent corrupted by the iron tang of their blood. Nights twenty years later, she soothed my father when flashbacks from WWII racked his mind. She was always afraid he might think her an enemy, kill her bare-handed while asleep. “Blessed art thou among women.” Her lips would whisper the words. “Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” Rosary beads twined around her fingers, she would kiss the Blessed Mother’s face where the silver chains joined full circle, the small crucifix hanging like an anchor in candlelight. Then she would drape the rosary’s light chain around her neck, like the doctor’s stethoscope she gave up. Like everything, everything she gave up. —Vince Gotera, Stone Canoe 11 (2017). I would like to thank the students in my Poetry Workshop class at the University of Northern Iowa in the spring semester of 2016. That class only had 7 students and so I had the welcome opportunity to write and workshop poems along with them. “Army Wife” was one of those poems, and the students — Amanda Husak, Andrew Richman, Claire Bowling, Lexi Yost, Molly White, Sarah Smith, and Ven Batista — all gave me insightful workshop feedback and practical advice. Thanks, guys! Many thanks also to Phil Memmer, editor of Stone Canoe. Excellent journal issue as always, Phil! Keep up your wonderful work. Friends, click here to get a copy of this Stone Canoe issue. Won’t you comment, please? I'd love to hear what you’re thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don’t find the word “comments” in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ