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Joanne Durham is the author of To Drink from a Wider Bowl (Evening Street Press 2022), which won the Sinclair Poetry Prize, Chasing Justice (Shanti Arts 2026), and the chapbook, On Shifting Shoals (Kelsay Books 2023). Her poems have won the Miriam Chaikin Poetry Prize, the Poetry Society of Louisiana’s poetry prize, the NC Poetry Society’s Mary Ruffin Poole poetry prize, and Third Wednesday Magazine’s Poetry Prize. An earlier version of Chasing Justice was a runner-up for the White Pine Press Poetry Book Award and finalist for the Blue Light Poetry contest. She has also received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations, and was a finalist for the Lascaux Poetry Prize, the James Applewhite Prize, the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition, Lit South Poetry Contest, Mary Blinn Poetry Contest, Ruminate’s Broadside Prize, Naugatuck River Review’s Narrative Poetry Contest, NC Poetry Society Poet Laureate Award, and the NC State Poetry Contest. Her poetry appears widely in literary journals and anthologies, including CALYX, Poetry East, River Heron Review, Vox Populi, NC Literary Review, Cold Mountain Review, 12 Poets, The Wonder of Small Things anthology edited by James Crews, and The Nature of Our Times anthology.

‍ ‍Joanne teaches poetry workshops at the Osher Lifelong Learning Center at UNC Wilmington, and online. She co-hosts the Island Arts Council’s monthly Poetry Thursdays in Carolina/Kure Beach, NC and lives with her husband on the North Carolina coast, with the ocean as her backyard and muse. When she’s not writing, reading or talking about poetry, she practices yoga, plays tennis, delights in her grandkids, and works for a better world for them to grow up in. Learn more about her at https://www.joannedurham.com.

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