The Boy Who Wrote Poetry is a heartwarming and inspirational work about Mark Ford, a promising young poet and writer who died a tragic and premature death at the age of eighteen. This collection is the poetry he left behind.
Judy Taylor, Mark’s sister and the author of the book, tells the story of her brother’s short life and their family, the circumstances in which he grew up, and how he began to express his creativity at a very young age. The examples of Mark’s poetry and general writings that the author presents are remarkable and moving. Considering the tender age at which Mark wrote the poetry, the sophistication and insight revealed in the work are astonishing.
Despite the sometimes perplexing narration and lack of photograph captions, leading to confusion about who’s who in the images presented, the pictures of the family growing throughout the years give a touching clue to the close-knit family and the seven children, of whom Mark was the eldest and the author, his sister Judy, was the youngest. The photos, even without clarity on which child is which (the glasses at least make clear which is Mark Ford), make for warm reminiscences and give a clue to how the young poet lived and grew.
What is of particular note is the degree to which the self-awareness is evident in Mark’s work. “Please excuse the misspelled words,” he requests in the introduction to a collection of his poetry. “It was meaning, not grammar I strove (and am still striving) for.”
There are glimpses of what kind of storyteller that Mark would have developed into with offerings like “What do you use/To keep out the night? Try to conceal/Your delicate fright. Don’t call for help/For nothing is worse/Than wounded dignity/Innerness unhorsed.” A little trepidation, a little humor.
Mark, according to the author, went through phases including fantasy (in particular The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien) and Bob Dylan’s work, and produced imagery that reflects the prose of the time:
What changes in a day?
What makes the sky so grey?
What takes the wind and makes it so alone?
What breaks the earth and scatters senseless stone?
On the horizon, the bare brown
Horizon, glowing with the last of life,
Glowing with the last of life.
What changes in a week?
What makes it easier to speak
The words I should have said but could not say
And now that day has joined the past days
Littered in a pile.
A useless pile of days.
A useless pile of days.
A lightning tears the sky in two.
Another moment it is through
And sky is whole.
Beating down your wincing brow
The rains betray your wisdom now.
Alone the storm.
You, your trials, disappear
For who will equal or compare
Its tear-born ire?
The weeping storm screams out aloud.
Its tears are naked, bare and proud,
Anew for each departed leaf.
The sky lays down and cries its grief.
Not only that, more than a bit of insight amid the darkness, in his final poem before his death:
Guilt drops hawklike on suspecting man
And plummets toward his silent, secret sin.
The soul is pierced in vain; no talon can
Remove the stain when it is held within.
The grace of God, when sought, can dull
The beak and claws of guilt. A man can pray
And ease the burden in a heart too full
To bear, although the pangs of failure stay;
For God is God above us all and draws
Us up to Him, but man is man and shall
Persist in needing comrades in the pause
Between the ultimate rise and the ultimate fall.
God’s gifts uplift, but cannot be compared
In saving strength to sadness equally shared.
Mark Ford’s poetry and creative writing, the focus of the piece, were truly outstanding, and his early demise heartbreaking.
We are deeply honored and excited to continue to announce the 2020 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) with our third of three official postings.
The winners were recognized at a special CIBAs ceremony held on June 5th, 2021 in-person and by ZOOM webinars based at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
The CIBA announcements were made LIVE with Chanticleerians participating and interacting from around the globe and North America.
We cheered on the CIBA Premier Finalists with our bubbly of choice from wherever we were Zooming!
Raising our glasses to cheer the CIBA Winners!
We want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 24 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!
We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increasing exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division. The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.
This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for the
Six Non-Fiction Divisions:
Journey, Hearten, Harvey Chute, Mind and Spirit, I & I, and Nellie Bly
Leslie Bains – Let’s Take A Hike: 7 Family-Friendly Trails of Nantucket
Carole Bumpus – Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book Two
Jill Sherer Murray – Big Wild Love: The Unstoppable Power of Letting Go
The NELLIE BLY Book Awards
for Investigative and Long Form Journalism Non-Fiction
Grand Prize Winner is
PRISON FROM THE INSIDE OUT by William ‘Mecca’ Elmore & Susan Simone
The Nellie Bly First Place Category Winners are:
Ashley Conner and Cierra Camper – Memoirs of Michael: The Hurricane Project
Kris Newby – BITTEN: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons
Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D. – Cause and Civility: Imploring Reason and Respect From An Advocate Journalist, Book I (now, Advancing the Good Society: Real Advocacy Journalism™ in Action, Book I Ethics and Values)
Patricia Martin Holt – EMPOWER A REFUGEE, Peace of Thread and the Backyard Humanity Movement
Gigi Berardi – FoodWISE: A Whole Systems Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Food Choices
Ted Neill – Two Years of Wonder
The HARVEY CHUTE Book Awards
for Business & Enterprise Non-Fiction
Grand Prize Winner is
EDGE: TURNING ADVERSITY INTO ADVANTAGE by Laura Huang
The Harvey Chute First Place Category Winners are:
Gary M. Shiffman – The Economics of Violence: How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, Insurgency, and Terrorism
Susanne Tedrick – Women of Color in Tech: A Blueprint for Inspiring and Mentoring the Next Generation of Technology Innovators
Rachel Thompson – The BadRedhead Media 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge
Marcus Kirsch – The Wicked Company
Anthony Delauney – Owning the Dash
Tikiri Herath – Your Rebel Dreams: Discover Your Purpose and Passions to Power Up Your Life
Mike D. Kinney – Navigating Your Safety Culture Journey
The MIND & SPIRIT Book Awards
for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction
Grand Prize Winner is
EXIT THE MAZE: ONE ADDICTION, ONE CAUSE, ONE CURE by Dr. Donna Marks
The Mind and Spirit First Place Category Winners are:
Cindy Rasicot – Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter’s Spiritual Quest to Thailand
Nancy Pickard – Bigger Better Braver
Jennie Lee – Spark Change: 108 Provocative Questions for Spiritual Evolution
Anna Carner – Blossom – The Wild Ambassador of Tewksbury
Marianne Ingheim – Out of Love: Finding Your Way Back to Self-Compassion
Jill Sherer Murray – Big Wild Love: The Unstoppable Power of Letting Go
The HEARTEN Book Awards
for Uplifting and Inspiring Non-Fiction
Grand Prize Winner is
LOVE, LIFE, AND LUCILLE by Judy Gaman
The Hearten First Place Category Winners are:
Annerose D. Watts – Blue Plate Journey
Katherine Snow Smith – Rules for the Southern Rulebreaker, Missteps, and Lessons Learned
Rebecca Dwight Bruff will also be awarded $1,000 USD in recognition of her 2020 BEST BOOK of the YEAR – Chanticleer International Book Awards – Sponsored by Chanticleer Reviews & Media.
A Chanticleer Review ofTrouble the Waterwill be featured in the in the SPRING 2022 quarterly edition of the Chanticleer Reviews Magazine (print and epub) along with other promotional and marketing opportunities along with an interview with the author, Rebecca Dwight Bruff.
Thank you Rebecca Dwight Bruff for participating in the 2020 Chanticleer International Book Awards. We look forward to receiving future work in our CIBAs.
We look forward to toasting Rebecca in person at our next gathering–hopefully in 2022. We are so happy that she joined us virtually for the CIBA announcements at our special ceremony on June 5th, 2021.
CONGRATULATIONS REBECCA DWIGHT BRUFF!
From all of us at Chanticleer International Book Awards and Chanticleer Reviews.
THANK YOU to VCAC21 SPONSORS and FRIENDS
And to FRIENDS of CHANTICLEER REVIEWS:
Cathy Ace, J.D. Barker, Robert Dugoni, Chris Humphreys, Bradley Metrock, Jessica Morrell, Scott Steindorff, and Paul Hanson of Village Books
We will post more photographs and information. Do check back and subscribe to the Chanticleer Reviews e-news letter.
The video recordings of VCAC21 will be available on VIMEO. More information to come.
We have exciting news for the Chanticleer Community on the horizon so do stay tuned!
You know you want a coveted Chanticleer Reviews Blue Ribbon!
Be sure to register early for the 10th Anniversary 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference that will start on April 7th, 2021 with the 2022 CIBA banquet and ceremony scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 10th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. If we cannot move forward with CAC22 due to the coronavirus, we will host another LIVE and HYBRID Chanticleer Authors Conference and 2021 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards ceremony.
Pivot and Oscillate are the Words for Today’s Challenging Times.
An email will go out to all 2020 CIBA award winners prior to October 30, 2021, with instructions, links, and more information about the awards packages. We appreciate your patience. As stated many times before “One does not need to be present at the CIBA ceremony and banquet to win. But it sure is a lot more fun!” –even if it is virtual!
As always, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!
The I & I Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in non-fiction that are self-help, how-to, guides, or instructional. In non-fiction works, the author assumes responsibility (in good faith) for the truth, accuracy, people, places, or information presented. The I & I Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring How-To, Guidance, Travel Guides, Cookbooks, Instruction, Insight, Self-Help, and more. These books have advanced to the Premier Level of Achievement in the 2020 CIBAs.
We also are now offering the following CIBA Non-Fiction Divisions:
The Journey Awards for Narrative Nonfiction
The Mind & Spirit Book Awards for Mindfulness and Well-being
The Nellie Bly Book Awards for Investigative and Long-Form Journalism
The I & I Book Awards for Insight and Instruction for How-To, Guide Books, Self-Help, Cook Books, etc.
The Harvey Chute Book Awards for Business, Finance, and Enterprise
The Hearten Book Awards for Uplifting and Inspiring
New in 2021 will be the Military Veterans and First Responders Non-Fiction works.
The 2020 I & I Book Awards First Place Category Winners and the I & I Grand Prize Winner were announced by Abbe Rolnick on Saturday, June 5, 2021 at the Hotel Bellwether and broadcast via ZOOM webinar and Facebook Live.
It is our privilege and profound honor to announce the 1st in Category winners of the 2020 I & I Awards, a division of the 2020 CIBAs.
This is the OFFICIAL 2020 LIST of the I & I BOOK AWARDS First Place Category Winners and the I & I Grand Prize Winner.
Congratulations to all!
Peggy Sullivan –Blissfully Single, A Single’s Guide to Finding Happiness
Judy Taylor –Save That Rug! A How-To Guide for Repairing Hooked Rugs
Dennis J Kotchmar –The Joy Of Searching, Buying and Selling, Antiques and Home Decor from France and England
Wendela Whitcomb Marsh –Independent Living with Autism: Your Roadmap to Success
Leslie Bains –Let’s Take A Hike: 7 Family-Friendly Trails of Nantucket
Carole Bumpus –Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book Two
Jill Sherer Murray – Big Wild Love: The Unstoppable Power of Letting Go
The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2020 I & I Awards is:
Wendela Whitcomb Marsh for
Independent Living with Autism: Your Roadmap to Success
The 2021 I & I Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC22 on April 10, 2022. Save the date for CAC22, scheduled April 7-10, 2022, our 10 year Conference Anniversary!
Submissions for the 2021 I & I Book Awards are open until the end of November. Enter here!
A Note to ALL the WINNERS: The coveted CIBA Blue Ribbons will be mailed out starting in July. We will contact you with an email to verify your mailing address and other items. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
The I & I Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in non-fiction that are self-help, how-to, guides, or instructional. In non-fiction works, the author assumes responsibility (in good faith) for the truth, accuracy, people, places, or information presented. The I & I Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
