Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Ph.D. and Ellaraine Lockie 2009 Creekwalker Poetry Prize Finalists' Judges, on Faye Williams Jones Prize
Winning Poem "When Passing the Possom":
We were both immediately drawn to the poem, "When Passing the Possum." Neither of us was familiar with its form called parallel poem;
nor could we find any information on this form. Perhaps the poet invented it, which was just fine because it worked. What could have easily
become a gimmick that sacrifices content for form instead innovatively combines the two while keeping content foremost. The sensitive
intertwining of the natural and human worlds and strong treatment of both individually are what elevated the poem to First Place.
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Patricia Wellingham-Jones, RN (retired), PhD, is a former psychology researcher, writer/editor and poet, published widely in journals and
Internet magazines, including HazMat Review, Edgz, Rattlesnake Review, Ibbetson Street, Creekwalker and Wicked Alice. She has a special
interest in healing writing, leads a writing group at a local cancer center, and has work in several anthologies on related subjects, including
After Shocks: The poetry of recovery; My Body of Knowledge: stories of illness, disability, healing and life; Under Our Skin: literature of breast
cancer; and Bone and Tissue (on disabilities). She writes for the new journal, Recovering the Self: a journal of hope and healing, and has
interviews on healing writing in Wordgathering, a journal of disability poetry and Lummox Journal. Her ten chapbooks include Don’t Turn
Away: Poems About Breast Cancer, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level, Voices on the Land, End-Cycle: poems about caregiving and Hormone
Stew.
Ellaraine Lockie has received writing residencies at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, and eleven Pushcart Prize nominations. Among other
awards, she's been a recent recipient of the Lois Beebe Hayna Award from The Eleventh Muse, the One Page Poem Prize from the Missouri
Writers' Guild, the Elizabeth R. Curry Prize from SLAB, the Writecorner Press Poetry Award, the Skysaje Poetry Prize, the Dean Wagner Poetry
Prize and first place in the Summer Shark Poetry Contest from the Aquarium of the Pacific. She's authored seven chapbooks, and her two
latest are Stroking David's Leg from FootHills Publishing and Love in the Time of Electrons from Pudding House. She serves as Poetry
Editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh, and teaches poetry/writing workshops.
Her home page is http://literati.net/ellaraine-lockie.
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