The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has announced the winners of the 2008 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards. Since 1995, the Santa Barbara-based foundation has made an annual series of awards to encourage poets to explore and illuminate positive visions of peace and the human spirit.
First place in the Adult category was awarded to Ashley Wellington of New York City for her poem, “Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.” Honorable mention in the Adult category was awarded to Colleen Dwyer-Lulf of Fort Benton, Mont., and her winning poem, “Milkweed Pods,” and to Susan Roth of Highland Park, N.J., and her poem, “Stolpersteine.”
First place in the Youth 13 to 18 category was awarded to Jennifer Hu of Hummelstown, Pa., for her poem, “The Ungodly Hour.” Honorable mention was awarded to Emma Ginader of Bloomsburg, Pa., for her poem, “Bombs Away. Circa World War Two, Florence, Italy.”
In the Youth 12 and Under category, first place was awarded to Xiao Jin Jackson of Mendocino for her poem, “The Light is Shining on Us.” Virginia “Tess” Hinchman of West Bath, Maine, was awarded honorable mention for her poem, “Healing Over.”
Barbara Mandigo Kelly was a poet, pianist and the wife Frank King Kelly, one of the founders of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan international organization with consultative status to the United Nations. For 26 years the foundation has been committed to advancing initiatives to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat to all life, to fostering the global rule of law, and to building an enduring legacy of peace through education and advocacy.
Click here for more information on the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, including the winning and honorable mention poems in their entirety, previous years’ winners and the 2009 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards guidelines, or call 805.965.3443.
Steven Crandell is the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s development and public affairs director.