Awards Ceremony!

Next Wednesday, May 24, 2023, at 7:00pm, the Bellingham Cruise Terminal (355 Harris Avenue in Fairhaven) will again come to life with the sound of poetry. The Awards Ceremony for the 2023 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest is free and open to the public. The evening will be hosted by everyone’s favorite emcee, Kevin Murphy, with comments from the judges, Caitlin Scarano and Leslie Wharton, and the year’s award-winning poems read by their poets. Please come celebrate community poetry at this heartwarming event.

awards ceremony

You’re invited to an appreciation of poets and poetry as the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest celebrates the winners of the 2019 contest. The winning poets will read their poems, the beautiful poem placards will be on view, and all of this year’s submissions will be displayed. Plus, a chapbook of the winning poems will be available for purchase and there will be refreshments! It’s all free, and a truly heart-warming community event: Thursday, May 16, 2019, 7:00pm, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Avenue in Fairhaven.

Winners and awards!

Congratulations to the 2018 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest winning poets! A total of 224 Whatcom County residents participated in the 13th annual Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest, which was judged this year by Richard Widerkehr and Jane Wong. The judges selected the 25 winning poems through a blind process.

The 10 Walk Award winners are six adults — Marie Eaton, Felicia Clemmons, Alandra Barker, Donald Antenen, Tanner Abernathy, and Nancy Canyon — and four students — Madeleine Joyce Patterson, Mason Cash, Izetria Grace-Lind, and Emma McCoy.

The 15 Merit Award winners are eight adults — KJ Vande Bossche, Elizabeth Vignali, Bonnita Lynne, Roger William Gilman, Leslie Wharton, Nora Whitley Abelite, Stephen Palmer, and Barbara L Weed — and seven students — Meagan Gillikin, Jackie Lomas, Jacob Murphy, Ellie Osterloh, Grace Moore, Allie Haugen, and EmmaThario.

The public is invited to honor the winners and to hear the poets read their winning entries at the contest’s awards ceremony, 7:00pm, Thursday, May 17, 2018, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Aveue in Fairhaven. The event and parking are free. Bellingham poet Kevin Murphy will emcee, and the judges will present award certificates.

A chapbook of poems from this year’s contest will be available for purchase, and all poems entered in this year’s contest will be on display at the ceremony.

Copies of each poem — on placards designed by Angela Boyle, Megan Carroll, Christian Anne Smith, and Kim Wulfestieg — will be displayed for a year inside Whatcom Transportation Authority buses circulating throughout the county. Also, Walk Award poems will be displayed for a year on engraved plaques on the Poetry Walk in front of the downtown Bellingham Public Library — one of a growing number of permanent poetry installations in the United States.

The winning poems and their placards will be posted on this page each Sunday, beginning after the awards ceremony, and linked to the Winners page.

Awards ceremony!

Mark your calendar and please plan to join the 2017 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest winning poets and their fans for the annual awards ceremony. Held at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal at 7:00pm next Thursday, May 18, 2017, this once again promises to be a heart-warming, celebratory event. Admission is free. Kevin Murphy will emcee. The winning poets will read their poems, a chapbook of the 2017 winning poems will be available for purchase and all of this year’s submitted poems will be on display along with samples of the beautiful poetry placards that will be placed in Whatcom Transportation Authority buses later this summer.

See the list of winners and watch for the winning poems in this space each Sunday over the coming months.

Awards Ceremony tonight!

The public is invited to honor the winners and hear the poets read their winning entries at the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony, Thursday, May 15, 2014, 7:00pm The awards ceremony is held at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Avenue, Bellingham. The event (and parking) are free.

This year Kevin Murphy will emcee, and the judges, Jim Bertolino and Sheila Nickerson, will present award certificates. A chapbook of poems from this year’s contest will be available for purchase and all poems entered in this year’s contest will be on display.

Celebrate community poetry along with this year’s Sue Boynton Poetry Contest winners.

Walk Awards: Michelle Ballou, Amanda Chandler (10th grade), Linda Conroy, Thom Davis, Evan Ingalls, Konrad Kocsis, Andrew Shattuck McBride, Savannah Miller (12th grade), Erica Reed, and Judy Teresa.

Merit Awards: Luther Allen, Diane Bateman, Angela Belcaster, Cassondra Dick (11th grade), Seren Fargo, Seth Friedman, Suzanne Harris, Bob Hicks, Brett Larkin (6th grade), Thomas Lewis (10th grade), Carol McMillan, M. Ann Miller, Cody Moser (12th grade), Donna Watson Rushing, and Luci Shaw.

We’re saving you a seat!

Tonight’s the night! Please join the winners of the 8th Annual Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest and their families, friends and fans at the Awards Ceremony: 7:00pm at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Street in Fairhaven. The ceremony is free and there’s plenty of free parking.

The winning poets will read their poems and this year’s two judges, Bruce Beasley and Mary Gillilan, will present award certificates to Walk Award winners Angela Belcaster, Mariah Brown-Pounds, Susan Chase-Foster, Kayla Donovan (11th grade), Malcolm H. Kenyon, Mike Long, Matt Malyon, Betty Scott, Emily Spector-Van Zee (kindergarten) and Liam Veitch (6th grade); and Merit Award winners Luther Allen, Maddy DeFreest (8th grade), Victoria Doerper, Deborah Lutz, Andrew Shattuck McBride, Jim Milstead, Marina Murphy (10th grade), Bassam Najib Boulos (8th grade), Joe Nolting, Timothy Pilgrim, Colleen Schwartz, Kristin Smith (11th grade), Tom Villa-Lovoz, Richard Widerkehr and Margarethe Zubler-Keller.

A chapbook of winning poems will be available for purchase and all poems entered in this year’s contest will be on display.

This is a wonderful community event. Please join us!
. . . . .
photo by Cyndi Bennett

A winning evening of winning poets

Please mark your calendar and join Whatcom County poets and poetry lovers on Thursday, May 16 at 7:00pm for the 2013 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony.

The poets will read their winning entries, all poems that were submitted to this year’s contest will be on display and a chapbook of winning poems from this year’s contest will be available for purchase.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Street in Fairhaven. As always, admission is free and there’s plenty of free parking.

This is an all-ages event, so bring the family and come celebrate community creativity!