december is proud to present audio recordings of our winner Chelsea Jennings reading her poem “Heirloom”

HEIRLOOM

As close to the past as maps can get to rivers
A boat full of stones     A handful of water

*

This is the dressmaker’s frame
where we hang our fear of the dark

Again and again we thread it
though the eye of sleep is small
*

It could have been a locket with a lock of hair inside
It could have been a mirror     A set of silver     A coin
*

There was a pewter cup and a patron saint
for each of the children who lived

They kept their records in the Bible
They shared a single bridal dress

*

This is the watchmaker’s shop
where the balance wheel can be fixed

*

We wear their scrimshaw earrings
and are called by their given names

We dream that we’re drowning   We dream that
we wake     And we eat our meals from their plates

and Sam Roxas-Chua, our honorable mention, reading his poem “A Beast in the Chapel.”

A BEAST IN THE CHAPEL

Several times I asked my father
to pull on my ears
until my feet were lifted off the ground.

Several times I asked him
to look into my eyes
and blow out the red lanterns—

those soft pendulums
that keep me up at night,
twin stars of vermillion arias.

Several times I placed my hand
inside his mouth and fished for summer,
moon, winter, and tow.

Several times I hid my name
behind my ears
when he called me Bakla!

Several times my hands shimmied
under the breakfast table
where my mother sat me down

and said he wasn’t coming home—
it was Christmas, I wore a red tie.
And on that same day,

a man was found in the river,
his face eaten by fish. Several
times I asked Who was he?

Who was he? Several times
I sucked on plums to think of him.
Several times I dreamt I had gills.

december is proud to announce its nominations for the 2015 Pushcart Prize. These works appeared in december Vol. 25.1 and 25.2 in 2014.

NQR, nonfiction by Garet Lahvis (25.1)

Paper Lantern, fiction by Anna Boorstin (25.2)

Natal Assignments of the Zodiac, a poem by Michael Harper

Sutures, a poem by Karen Holman (25.2)

For the Want of a Shoe, a poem by Colleen McElroy (25.2)

The karma of heredity,  a poem by Marge Piercy

In addition, the following works were independently nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Pushcart Press Contributing Editors.  All nominations are from Vol. 25.2.

Want, a poem by Emily Bobo

Since So Many People Don’t Seem to Know what No Soliciting Means…, a poem by David Clewell

A Portable Wife, a poem by Abby Murray

Natal Assignments of the Zodiac, a poem by Michael Harper

Ghost Town Scavengers, a poem by David Salner

We love sharing stories … We’re humbled to be featured in St. Louis Magazine–they did a beautiful job of sharing ours! Thanks for the great article, A december to Remember.

Special thanks to the Missouri Arts Council for their support of this event.

december acknowledges with great sadness the loss of poet Stephen Berg. In addition to founding The American Poetry Review, he was our advisory editor, a contributor since 1959, judge of our first poetry prize, and, most important, our friend.

STEPHEN W. BERG’s Obituary on Philly.com

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