Contest Winners

We are pleased that this year's Working Peoples Poetry Contest had more entries than ever. Choosing a winner from among the many strong entries was difficult and many of the poems that didn't win the prize are sure to wind up published in the pages of the Blue Collar Review.

The winner for this year's contest is Gil Fagiani for his poem "A Clean Wound." This powerful poem shows not only the cost of war but the power of imperialism to press soldiers from poor countries into service for the interests of empire and the multi-nationals ultimately in power.

Our runner up is John P. Heckathorne for his beautiful poem, "Oil Creek, Pennsylvania." This poem describes the waste of land and lives left in industry's wake as it left Pennsylvania for other areas to exploit.

Both of these poems are posted on line for a year and both poets receive a subscription to our journal as well.

We are thankful for the participation of so many fine poets in this contest as it helps us fund our journal and press.