Portlandia 2008 Chapbook Winner: Jen Karetnick of Florida for BUD BREAK AT MANGO HOUSE

The winner of our 2008 national chapbook contest is Jen Karetnick of Miami Shores, Florida. Her chapbook entitled “Bud Break at Mango House” will be published in the fall. She has received $200, a publication contract, and will be awarded 30 free copies. In both form (sonnet, villanelle, sestina) and free verse, Karetnick’s poetry achieves a sub-tropic lushness and power that is awe-inspiring and spooky. Whether she's telling us “How to Shop for a Hurricane” or about a “Sea Turtle on South Beach,” Jen Karetnick creates unforgettable scenes and meditations about life’s challenges in precise and expertly crafted language.

Writing from a mango plantation near Miami, Karetnick has placed more than 75 poems in journals such as Barrow Street, The Nebraska Review, and The Spoon River Poetry Review. As a food-and-travel writer, she has published books and articles with Random House, HarperCollins, and other publishers. Karetnick has published one previous poetry chapbook, Necessary Salt, with Pudding House Publications and has another, Eve and After, forthcoming this summer from Southern Hum Press. She holds a MFA in poetry from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a MFA in fiction from the University of Miami.

Finalists in the competition were:

Eleanor Berry of Lyons, Oregon, for Small Repair
Steve Lautermilch of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, for Creel
Oz H. Koglin of Portland, Oregon, for Gardens for Everyone
Greg McBride of Silver Spring, Maryland, for Back of the Envelope

The quality of manuscripts we receive from across the nation is very high and there were many manuscripts worthy of publication. We regret that we only have the time and resources to publish one chapbook. All entrants will receive a copy of Jen Karetnick’s chapbook Bud Break at Mango House for no additional fee later this year (retail value $8). The judges, all published poets with advanced degrees, were Helen Marie Casey of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Robert Brown of Astoria, Oregon, Elisa A. Garza of Houston, Texas, and Karen Braucher, Publisher, Founding Editor, and Poet, The Portlandia Group

LIST OF PORTLANDIA CHAPBOOKS, AUTHORS, and LOCATION of AUTHOR


1999        BURNING        by Judith Taylor (Los Angeles)

2000        I KNOW YOUR HEART, HIERONYMUS BOSCH
        by Kurt S. Olsson (Maryland)

2001        FAMILIA        by Elisa A. Garza (Houston, Texas)

2002        FIVE-HUNDRED WIDOWERS IN A FIELD OF CHAMOMILE
        by John Surowiecki (Connecticut)

2002        PILGRIMS & BEGGARS        by David Biespiel (Oregon)

2004        WHY I KICK AT NIGHT        by Ron Drummond (New York City)

2006        WHEN, BY THE TITANIC        by John Pursley (Alabama)

2008        BUD BREAK AT MANGO HOUSE    by Jen Karetnick (Florida)