Prartho Sereno Wins Word Works 2007 Washington Prize

The Word Works is pleased to announce that Prartho Sereno, of San Anselmo, CA, won the 2007 Washington Prize for her full-length poetry manuscript, Call from Paris. The prize includes publication and a cash award of $1,500.

Ms. Sereno is a California Poet in the Schools and a watercolor artist whose work appears on book and CD covers. She is the author of a chapbook of poems, Garden Sutra (Finishing Line Press, 2005), and a book of essays, Everyday Miracles (Kensington, N.Y., 1998). Her illustrated book of poems, Causing a Stir: The Secret Lives and Loves of Kitchen Utensils, will be issued by Mansarovar Press in October 2007. She won a Marin Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in 2003. Her individual poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Atlanta Review, Chautauqua Review, Comstock Review, Rattle, Runes, California Quarterly, and other journals.

Call from Paris was chosen the winner from 257 manuscripts submitted by American poets. Two additional manuscripts were named honorable mentions: Balloon Animals, by Donald Illich, Rockville, MD, and The Fat Sheep Everyone Wants, by Bern Mulvey, Ekuserento Beru, Japan.

Final judges in this year’s contest were Karren L. Alenier, J.H. Beall, Bernadette Geyer, Miles David Moore, and Steven B. Rogers. First readers were Cliff Bernier, Doris Brody, Angelyn Donahue, W. Perry Epes, Michael Gushue, Erich Hintze, Tod Ibrahim, Sydney March, Mike McDermott, Ann Rayburn, Martha Sanchez-Lowery, Jill Tunick, and Doug Wilkinson. Second readers were Mark Dawson, Brandon D. Johnson, and Judith McCombs.

The Word Works has awarded the Washington Prize since 1981. In 2008, the Word Works again will offer publication and a $1,500 prize to a volume of original poetry. Submissions will be accepted from Jan. 15 to March 1, 2008, and the entry fee will be $25. All entrants receive a copy of the winning book. For further information and guidelines (available December 2007), send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the Word Works, P.O. Box 42164, Washington DC 20015, or visit the Word Works Web site at http://www.wordworksdc.com.

Call from Paris is available by advance order for $10 plus $3.50 shipping and handling from the mailing address above.