The winners in the Pearle Olsen Manuscript Competition were announced in the final session of the USPS 2007 Poetry Festival. N.Colwell Snell took first place with his manuscript, "Hand Me My Shadow." Helen Keith Beaman took 2nd place with her manuscript, "Enhanced Vision," and Theda Bassett took third with "Running the Ridges." L.C. Snell and Patricia Kimber tied for honorable mention with their respective collections, "Gold Dust in a Sieve," and "Desert Voices." The judge, Lance Larsen, had this to say about "Hand Me My Shadow."
"From the intriguing title, 'Hand Me My
Shadow' to the explorations of lives both real and imagined, this manuscript
carries the reader into new terrain. Robert Frost once said that we admire 'the
straight crookedness of a good walking stick.' He was talking of course about
iambic pentameter, which this manuscript supplies in abundance - not Victorian
sing-songy rhythms. but rhythms of the human voice distilled, a straight
crookedness that helps us make the journey. The result? To quote Frost again,
'a temporary stay against chaos.' I like the way these poems narrate, speak
out, and think their way through experience, whether the speaker is witnessing
the gelding of a stallion or weighing the costs of war or celebrating the
natural world. This manuscript catalogues the humanity of wildness and the
wildness inside the everyday."
Lance Larsen's poems have appeared in Paris
Review, Kenyon Review, New Republic, Threepenny Review, The Times Literary
Supplement, and elsewhere. His first collection, Erasable Walls (New Issues) was
published in 1998. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Houston and has
received several awards, including fellowships from the Cultural Arts Council of
Houston, the Utah Arts Council, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Director of
English Graduate studies at BYU, he is married to painter and mixed-media artist
Jacqui Larsen.
N. Colwell Snell is currently president of the Utah State Poetry Society, as well as director of the College Manuscript Competition for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. His poetry has won innumerable prizes, and has been featured in prestigious publications such as California Quarterly, Encore, Byline and Oasis journal. His manuscript has placed in the top 10 of the NFSPS manuscript competition, and he recently received a second place in the prestigious Faulkner prize. He has been recognized by such high-profile poets as Adrienne Rich, David Wagoner, Peter Meinke and Lola Haskins among many others. Mr. Snell was also the editor of Utah Sings, volume VIII. The Utah State Poetry Society is incredibly proud and honored to claim Mr. Snell as the 2007 Poet of the Year.