2024 Judges
Celest Woo
English teacher at Trevor Day School in Manhattan, NYC.
Celest has been a college professor at colleges in NY, NJ, and CO, and has taught English as well as French. She has published a chapbook of poetry with Pudding House, and a full-length poetry book with Clare Songbirds. She has published scholarly work, as well as poetry, fiction, and memoir both online and in print. She is a modern dancer and choreographer, and is currently at work on a book-length memoir.
Michael Sharp
Professor of
English Literature and Caribbean Studies
Michael Sharp was born in England and graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and holds graduate degrees from universities in England and the United States. His doctorate is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He teaches English Literature and Caribbean Studies at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. Michael Sharp’s poetry has been published on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sarah Etlinger
English Professor
Sarah A. Etlinger is an English professor who lives in Milwaukee, WI, with her family. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she is the author of 4 books; most recently A Bright Wound (Cornerstone Press, 2024). Work appears in Rattle, Spoon River Poetry Review, Minyan Magazine, Pithead Chapel, and many others. When not reading, writing, or teaching, she can be found cooking, baking, birdwatching, and spending time near Lake Michigan with her family.
Rachael Ikins
Poet & Associate Editor at Clare Songbirds Publishing
Rachael Ikins is a graduate of Syracuse University and winner of the 2018 Independent Book Award for poetry for her collection Just Two Girls. She is a multiple prize-winning poet/novelist/artist having written seven chapbooks, a full length poetry collection and a novel. Her artwork has hung from Cooperstown to the NYS Fair and in galleries from Albany to Syracuse and points between. Her favorite subject is the faces and eyes of animals. She lives in a small house with her animal family surrounded by nature and an enormous vegetable garden, fruits of which sustain her through winter. Besides drawing and writing, Rachael enjoys hiking with her dogs, biking on the lake, mushroom hunting and cooking. She is never without a book in hand.
Heidi Nightengale
Editor & Co-Owner of Clare Songbirds Publishing
Heidi has been writing and publishing in local, regional and national literary magazines for over 25 years. Her chapbook, Bird Vision, was published by Pudding House Press in 2008. Heidi has won numerous awards for her writing and her volunteer civic and community work. Heidi is currently on the faculty of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Empire State College where she teaches courses in writing, reading and writing poetry along with courses in human services. In 2014, Heidi published her first children’s picture book, What Fragrance is the Moon? She has been a writer in the schools for her work as a poet and children’s writer in three states and over 80 preschool, elementary, middle and high school classrooms. She has also conducted local poetry workshops for the public at Cayuga Community College and the Finger Lakes Arts Council. She has been a featured reader of her poetry in libraries, bookstores and coffee house settings throughout Central New York for over 15 years. When Heidi is not writing or teaching, she spends her time gardening and coaxing faeries to her cottage gardens.
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