ABBY PAIGE

I’m proud and more than a little bit humbled that my poem, “The Undefended Border,” has won the 2011 Founder’s Prize from RHINO, a Chicago-based poetry journal and collective. I’ve admired their work from afar for a while now; I don’t get to Chicago too often, but their furious poetic activity certainly makes me wish that I did. For a taste of their feisty style, check out Editor-in-Chief Ralph Hamilton’s recent blog post, “I am for a moment made more alive,” which describes what makes a good poem worth reading.

RHINO’s choice of this particular poem of mine is especially meaningful to me, not only because it’s the title poem of my manuscript, but because it is a sort of song to my great-grandparents. They immigrated from Quebec to Vermont in the early 1900s, and three generations and almost a century later, in 2008, I immigrated back in the other direction. The poem explores the borders we cross for love, for family, for preservation and transformation, and how crossing borders erases them. I’m happy to say that “The Undefended Border” will appear in RHINO’s 2011 Issue, as well as on their website. I’ll post the link as soon as it exists.

Addendum, April 20, 2011: The link to the issue is here.