Last Saturday I accepted my first ever poetry prize for The Mas Tequila Review’s Editor’s Choice Award. It was a blast getting to meet Richard Vargas, the journal’s editor-in-chief, and hear him read poems from his new book Guernica, Revisited. I also got to take the stage—a lovely alcove of Gatsby Books complete with sleeping cat—to read the selected poem as well as a few others published in the mag. 

I snapped a few photos at the event:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The winning poem, Postcard Trapped in the City of Industry, is itself a snapshot of a job I had several years ago working in the office of a distribution center. It was depressing, slow-paced, and riddled with some of the oddest office politics I’ve ever encountered. Once you read the poem you’ll see what I mean. Almost all of the “facts” of the poem are true, especially the tidbits of office dress code and prayer practices. Yeah. I didn’t work there long!

You can purchase The Mas Tequila Review through Amazon. It’s a hefty journal and inside you’ll find some awesome lady poets like Peggy Dobreer and Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, who I appeared alongside in decomP earlier this summer. I’m also rocking a new Gatsby Books tote bag. It’s the Long Beach equivalent of the Strand bag in New York City.

I mean, what does your literary tote bag say about you? (Oldie but a goodie. Enjoy!)