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Madeline Kramer Wins the Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award-2023

Updated: Aug 7, 2023

Gival Press is pleased to announce that Madeline Kramer of Wilmington, North Carolina has won the 22nd Annual Oscar Wilde Award, for her poem titled Self-Portrait While Visiting My Parents for Christmas, chosen anonymously by the previous winner of the award, Brad Fairchild. The award has a cash prize of $500.00 and the poem will be published on the Gival Press website.



Self-Portrait while Visiting my Parents for Christmas


A sweater baggy and hiding

my curves, and special gummies

before Christmas Eve mass,

the church aglow with colored light


from stained glass tinting incense smoke

that streaks against watery eyes,

a sip of wine and two shots of whiskey

and one shot from my brother’s gun, its echoes


shattering flocks of birds into flight,

driving past shells of shotgun

houses, their edges outlined with string

lights, that tap against windows,


midnight in a twin bed, whispering

to my really good friend of seven years,

her chest rising and falling in the bed

two feet away. My roommate whispering


back, her eyes still bloodshot and glistening

and I’ve never loved her more than in this moment,

with the metal wreath hanger grating

against the window, the chirping of the alarm,


the thud of the heavy rod we’d drop

in the track of the sliding back door,

to stand in for its broken lock.


Copyright © 2023 by Madeline Kramer.


About the Author

Madeline Kramer enjoys the study of literary criticism, and much of her creative work is grounded in feminist and queer theoretical practice. She holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Western Kentucky University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her essay Wallpaper Girls was a finalist for the 2020 Dogwood literary award for nonfiction and her work has been published in Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose as well as multiple anthologies. Madeline is liked by most cats who mistake her anxious energy for purring.


Finalists


The Ghost Who Listens

by Julian Delacruz of Van Nuys, California


To Ambi Sextrous, Judy Garland, with Apologies to Fredric Chopin

by David Sparks of Chicago, Illinois


Stiff Wrist

by Ken Kline of Cincinnati, Ohio


If Moss Grows on the North Side of Trees

by Allison Blevins of Dayton, Minnesota




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