For Immediate Release

                                                            Contact: Ben Furnish

                                                            furnishb@umkc.edu

                                                            (816) 235-2558

                                                            July 14, 2006

Paula Bonnell Wins the 2006 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry from UMKC’s BkMk Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo – BkMk Press of the University of Missouri-Kansas City is pleased to announce that Paula Bonnell of Boston, Massachusetts, has won the 2006 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. She receives $1,000 and book publication from BkMk Press in the Fall of 2007. Bonnell’s manuscript, Voices, was selected by Mark Jarman, this year’s final judge.

Bonnell is also the author of Message.  Bonnell’s poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Rattle, and Boston Herald’s National Poetry Month feature. Garrison Keillor selected her poem “Midwest” for broadcast in the Writer’s Almanac radio program. Bonnell’s essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Ms., and the Christian Science Monitor. Awards for her writing include prizes from the Cambridge Poetry Festival, Negative Capability, the Chester H. Jones Foundation, Poet Lore, the PEN/Syndicated Fiction program, and the PEN/New England Discovery program.

Jarman, who selected Voices for this prize, is a professor of English at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and the author of numerous volumes of poetry and essays. His many awards include the Lenore Marshall Prize for his book Questions for Ecclesiastes.

            BkMk Press founded the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry in 1998 to honor the memory of Ciardi, who taught for a time at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), poet, translator, and poetry editor of The Saturday Review.

            BkMk Press was founded in 1971 and became a part of UMKC in 1983.  The press publishes fine literature by contemporary authors.  Financial assistance for BkMk Press is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, by UMKC, and by private donations.  Media review copies of published works may be requested by calling (816) 235-2558.

            The University of Missouri-Kansas City, one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students.  UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a three-part mission: visual and performing arts, health sciences, and urban affairs.

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