The 2021 Coniston Prize Virtual Reading w/ Radar Poetry

We’re looking forward to partnering up with Radar Poetry again this year in order to celebrate the finalists for the Coniston Prize! Join us to hear award-nominated work from Michelle Bitting, Kristina Erny, Brianna Flavin, Grace MacNair, and Chloe Martinez.

This event will be hosted on Zoom. You’ll receive the link to the Zoom meeting the day of the event via email. Free registration/ticket sales will end at 6:30pm ET on 10/20. Please email events@whitewhalebookstore.com if you miss this cut-off and need a ticket. For questions, check out our FAQ for events here.

About Radar Poetry and the Coniston Prize

Radar Poetry currently publishes three issues each year: the Winter Issue, the Summer Issue, and the Conistion Prize Issue. The Coniston Prize is an annual award that recognizes an exceptional group of poems by a woman writing in English. 2021 Judge: Yona Harvey.

About the writers:

Michelle Bitting was short-listed for the 2020 Montreal International Poetry Prize and the 2021 Fish Poetry Contest judged by Billy Collins. She won the 2018 Fischer Poetry Prize, Quarter After Eight’s 2018 Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest, and a fourth collection of poetry, Broken Kingdom won the 2018 Catamaran Prize and was named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2018. In 2021, her manuscript Nightmares & Miracles won the Wilder Prize and will be published by Two SylviasPress in 2022. Michelle is a Lecturer in Poetry and Creative Writing at Loyola Marymount University and Film Studies at U of Arizona Global.

Kristina Erny (she/her) is a poet and third-culture kid who grew up in South Korea. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s MFA program, her work has been published in Yemassee, Tupelo Quarterly, and theLos Angeles Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Prize and the Tupelo Quarterly Inaugural Poetry award. After many years of working internationally with her husband, sons, and daughter, she currently makes a living by teaching creative writing to college students in central Kentucky.

Brianna Flavin lives in St. Paul, Minnesota where she teaches English, gardens and volunteers for the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She has two children and is working on a manuscript about the triskelion. She holds an MFA from the University of Virginia and a fellowship from the Loft Literary Center. Her work has appeared in Timber, Waxwing Literary and the Nashville Review.

Grace MacNair is a poet, teacher, and healthcare professional. Born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina, she currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BA from UNC Chapel Hill and an MFA from Hunter College, where she taught creative writing. Grace has received support from Brooklyn Poets and research grants from Hunter College. She was an honorable mention in the 2019 NC State Poetry Contest judged by Ada Limón, received a High Commendation in the 2020 Ledbury Poetry Festival Poetry Competition, was a finalist for the 2021 Sappho Prize, and is a recipient of a 2021 Monson Arts’ Residency and Fellowship to conduct archival research related to 18th century midwifery. Grace was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2021 Frost Place Chapbook Fellowship sponsored by Bull City Press and was accepted into the 2021 Bread Loaf Workshop Series. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, RHINO, and elsewhere.

Chloe Martinez is a poet and scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of the collection Ten Thousand Selves (The Word Works) and the chapbook Corner Shrine (Backbone Press). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah and elsewhere. She is the Program Coordinator for the Center for Writing and Public Discourse at Claremont McKenna College. See more at www.chloeAVmartinez.com, or follow Chloe on Twitter @chloepoet.