Upcoming in 4am Poetry Review is Jude Goodwin who can be found at the Waters and was shortlisted in the Guardian's online poetry workshop for her poem Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-De-La-Mer which utilizes the ever popular ekphrasis which is a means of using a poem to translate the visual arts into the spoken.

Ms. Goodwin has won several notices for her unusual style and not too dry but just dry enough wit. Here at the Crescent Moon Journal's poetry ezine, she takes first prize for the poem With Your Dry Lips which demonstrates her virtuoso use of the word tsunami.

I first noticed Ms. Goodwin at The Gazebo. It is hard not to notice her poetry really as she uses the personal to translate the universal. There is a little something Jude in every one of her poems as well as large swathes of the epic of life, the kind of thing that takes you from the simple to the grand in less than fifty lines which is much easier said than done.

You can find Jude in so many places but how about here at the local Squamish Writers Group blog? Any place called Squamish ought to have a writers group. As far as place names go I'd say Squamish is about as literary as it gets. Ms. Goodwin runs her own paper called What's On Squamish and freelances as an illustrator and webpage designer.

Ms. Goodwin has work upcoming in The Shit Creek Review, Pedestal, Lock Haven Review, Cider Press Review, Boxcar and The Burnside Review.

Here is a little poem in waiting I lifted from the Gazebo where Jude is often found deliberating her work:

Dammit!

Someone left the window open
and now the cushions are soaked.
It's last year's rain.
The interior light is on too.
No matter how she twists things
the evidence is on the ceiling.
Her face is wet and the battery will probably
run down. She'll forget as usual
and leave the house at the very last minute,
thumb marking its place in her monogrammed agenda,
Wednesday's wine rusting on her tongue.
She'll never suspect loss. That's what it's like.
A turn of the key and silence. No point
in trying again. But of course she does.
Morning opens its red throat
and clicks.

...I'd say that is about right.

Viva La British Columbia!

4am is published annually, 20-40 pages, digest-sized, perfect-bound, cardstock cover with photo, 200 press run. Previously published poems, no. Simultaneous submissions, yes, with notice. Submissions are read all year, response is given within 6 months of submission deadlines, time between acceptance and publication is up to a year, pays 2 contributor's copies, acquires first rights. I am also seeking submissions of photos or artwork for cover consideration - B&W, no people. email with inquiries.