On Winning the Janet McCabe Poetry Prize

March 24, 2018 2 Comments

By Maggie Blake Bailey

I was getting off the plane for a family vacation when I checked my email. I remember seeing the phrase “winner of the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize,” and I remember thinking: oh great, another time I have learned about a rejection by reading the winner’s name.

At the time, I was on my way to visit my brother at the beach, and my husband and I had spent the short plane ride wrangling our two-year-old and six-month-old children. The Wilmington, NC airport is a small, sleepy place, and when I finally realized what the email actually said, I started jumping and whooping and, to be honest, sort of wheezing with excitement.

Needless to say, quite a few people asked me if I was okay. My husband was overjoyed when I explained the good news. Otherwise, most people were blandly appreciative once I squeaked out the explanation of my joy. Poetry can seem hard to understand, so a poetry PRIZE is a vague, if nice, accomplishment. Still, that day was an awesome day. I reread that email more times than I could count. More importantly, the poem that won the prize is at the heart of my first full length book, and I honestly believe winning gave me needed confidence in the confusing dance of finding a publisher. And I am so glad to say that collection, Visitation, was indeed accepted by Tinderbox Editions only a few short months later.

Here is the thing. We all like to win. Winning is awesome. That said, I have found, in adulthood, the high of “winning” doesn’t last very long. Part of it is that writing is a strange love, and once we achieve one goal, we immediately create a new one. Sure, I just published X, but I am sure I will never publish Y, and so on and so on. Part of it is that the demands of the day remain. Sure, I am now a PRIZE-WINNING POET (I say in a fancy voice in my head) but I still have to run the laundry.

What I value most about this prize can’t exactly be explained by “winning.” Ruminate took that winning poem and shared it. Widely. Bragged it on twitter and Facebook like my mom would have (and later did). Put the poem on their website. And then published it, beautifully, in a gorgeous journal full of other beautiful work, that my friends and family can purchase at BARNES AND NOBLES! My work has never had that level of accessibility to my non-writery world.

So yes, that is more than winning, that is a special kind of sharing. But the experience goes even deeper. The first poem that I fell in love with was “Hematite Lake” by James Galvin, and I once told a friend that I wanted to paint the words all over a bed so that I could sleep inside the poem.

After Ruminate published and so wonderfully promoted my poem, an MFA classmate of mine reached out. She is a successful professional musician, whose career has really taken off, and we text only occasionally. Imagine my surprise when she texted simply, “I love your poem.” I was thrilled. She is a talented wordsmith and her praise left me glowing. A few weeks later, she texted again, “I still love your poem.” And then the most miraculous thing happened. I responded with honest appreciation, and she said, “I want it hand written out and signed so I can frame it in my house.” I have never received a better compliment to my work. Although I will admit to wishing I had better handwriting.

I don’t share this anecdote to toot my own horn. Instead, I share it to say that winning this award is so much more than an accolade or line on a CV. I can’t speak for all writers, but I do think I am not alone in wanting, more than anything, to be read. Read with intention. Read with appreciation. Read with pleasure. Read more than once by the same person. I will always strive for this. And no singular accomplishment has impacted this more than the Janet B McCabe Prize.

Lastly, I would just add that the poem, “Elizabeth Asks,” that won the prize was rejected seven times before it won. I believed in that poem, every time. I am beyond grateful that Ruminate and Shane McCrae did, too.

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Maggie Blake Bailey  has poems published or forthcoming in Tinderbox, Tar River, Rappahannock Review, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. This Mother's Day, she received her MFA from the School of Letters program at Sewanee, the University of the South. During the year, she teaches high school English in Atlanta, Georgia, where she lives with her husband, toddler, baby, and puppy. She is currently completing a manuscript that considers the visitation of Mary and Elizabeth, as told in the Book of Luke.

 

Maggie Blake Bailey's exquisite poem "Elizabeth Asks" was selected by finalist judge Shane McCrae for first place in Ruminate's 2017 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize and appears, along with all of the finalist poems and an additional poem by Maggie Blake Bailey, in Issue No. 45: Unfinished. 

 

 

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

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