from River Heron Poetry Prize final judge, Alina Stefanescu:
"I was struck by the physical perfection of this poem, its three-part division, its motion and coiling movements, its sharp turns, the use of the snake as a vehicle for engaging religious belief across time--and how the interior metaphysical space is mapped in these shifts, attached to the dirt and dust, inhabiting what evolves towards "the spill of wonder in the flesh."
Janice Northerns’ first full-length poetry collection, Some Electric Hum, will be published in August 2020 by Lamar University Literary Press. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many journals, including Ploughshares, The Laurel Review, and Southwestern American Literature. Awards include a Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts residency, a Sewanee Writers’ Conference scholarship, and second place in Southwest Review’s 2017 Marr Poetry Contest. A native Texan, Northerns now lives with her husband in Kansas.
