The spring issue is our annual contest issue. This year we were pleased to have David James to judge our contest. David currently serves as the president of The Poetry Society of Michigan. He recently retired from teaching at Oakland Community College where his popular courses included Composition I and II, Creative Writing, Advanced Creative Writing, Introduction to Playwriting and Screenwriting, Advanced Screenwriting, and Introduction to Literature: Poetry and Drama. In 2006, David was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for teaching excellence.
David’s books include Alive in Your Skin While You Still Own It, 2022, Wiping Stars from Your Sleeves, 2021, A Gem of Truth, 2019,
Nail Yourself into Bliss, 2019, Going Down, Friend, 2017 (chapbook) and My Torn Dance Card, 2015.
David was charged with picking 3 winning poems and a handful of honorable mentions from nearly 200 entries of up to 3 poems each, a monumental task, and he made excellent choices for us.
In addition to our editors’ picks from regular submissions, many of the poems in this issue came originally from contest entries. We offer everyone who enters the contest a second chance opportunity for publication as a regular submission. David James had to eliminate a lot of poems to get to his final choices and among those poems that didn’t make the final cut we found many gems.
Third Wednesday Magazine 