BEST POETRY AWARD, ASSOC. FOR MORMON LETTERS

To Kathy Evans, the suburbs are full of wonder, like a foreign countryside. The sights, smells, sounds, and passion of everyday life are experienced as if for the first time. In a surrealistic view of families entitled "Unfinished Sestina," she captures the metaphysical essence of family relationships. Breakfast epiphanies? Where else could a working mother grasp the meaning of life? In her playfulness—and in the comfort of her domestic setting—she is as profound as Whitman criss-crossing the countryside. Her humorous twists and straightforward philosophy keep the mood upbeat even though, in her view, not everything she encounters in the suburbs is how things were intended to be.

Kathy Evans, a graduate of San Francisco State University, is a former Artist-in-Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts. She has been published in the Berkeley Review, California Quarterly, Denver Quarterly, Occident, Pacific Sun, Southern Review, and Yellow Silk. She is a contributor to Harvest, among other anthologies. She lives in Sausalito and participates in the California Poets-in-the-Schools program.