Here is what contest judge and National Book Award winner Mark Doty had to say about the winning poem:
“This beautiful poem evokes a city landscape lit up with the possibility of new love. But it’s also tense with the speaker’s awareness that this hope may never be realized. In this way ‘The Golden Hour’ captures how love and desire lead us forward, but can also hold us hostage.”
Numbered and signed copies of the broadside can be ordered on the Antlanta Queer Literary Festival website; proceeds will fund future AQLF nonprofit events. The Award was presented Friday, June 24 at the Decatur Public Library in Decatur, GA.