CCA News
A New Opening for Alumna Amanda Chiado—Best New Poets Selects Poem for Top 50
Posted on Thursday, February 18, 2010, by Jim Norrena
Alumna and poet Amanda Chiado (MFA Writing 2006) has had her poem "Openings" featured in Best New Poets 2009: 50 Poems from Emerging Writers, an annual anthology of 50 poems from emerging writers, compiled by a guest editor. The list is derived from nominations made by literary magazines and writing programs, as well as an open Internet competition.
The 2009 guest editor was local poet Kim Addonizio. The anthology was published in November and various readings are scheduled across the United States. Review the list of all 50 honorees.
Look for Amanda's poetry—either published or forthcoming—in such publications as Fence, Dusie, Cranky, and Line4.
Openings
Don’t think about the ship inside the bottle. It really makes
tenderness difficult. I would if I had a mouth. I would if I was not
a buried roll of quarters. I wish I could forget my hoax of parts,
gem of mouth. So they said ruby. One called me Ruby. I should
have saved the black pearl from the fire that I started.
I should have saved the photos of the bread rising, my lineage of paper
dolls. I flip pages to find burnt words that are shaped like me—
curved on the outside, but sharp in the middle.