I was happy to learn March 31 that my entry in the Malahat Review’s 2021 Long Poem Prize, judged anonymously, was shortlisted.

I had sent along a selection of poems from a series I wrote about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the countryside. Entries were to be between 10 and 20 pages of 36 lines per page. Out of 238 entries this year, eight were named as finalists, including mine. Two of the finalists, to be announced April 6, will be published in the magazine’s summer issue.