I read my poem, “The Day I Fell in Love 3 Times on the Metro,” as one of this year’s ESWA Crossroads Poetry & Micro-Fiction Contest finalists!

Three winners were awarded prizes. Congratulations to Catherine Carter for 1st place, and Jennifer Keith for 2nd place. I was awarded 3rd place. You can read all 3 poems here.

Nancy Mitchell, poet Laureate of Salisbury, MD, was this year’s judge, and Tara A. O’Brien Elliott was our wonderful (as usual!) host.

And here are the rest of the 2024 contest finalists, all of whom read fantastic poems:

Janice F. Booth; Carol Casey; Heidi Kasa; Betsy Mars; Michael Salcman; Stephanie Susan; Christina M. Rau

My poem, “Annual Wellness Check,” appears in the Baltimore Review, Spring 2024. Thanks, Barbara Westwood Diehl.

Here’s what I wrote about this poem:

“I've entered the age of Medicare-mandated annual wellness checks.

I'm worried about my future. And I'm still haunted by my past.”

Thanks to Eastern Shore Writers Association for spotlighting my poem, “Bremerhaven, Germany, January 1954,” in, when else (?), January!

Greatly appreciate the editors at the Rappahannock Review publishing my poem, “O, My Charmer, Spare Me,” in Issue 11.1. The fact that I’ve written this poem as if I were a cobra will not surprise some of you. https://rappahannockreview.com/.../poetry/katherine-gekker/

To learn more about the writing of this poem & how & why snakes speak to me, see the interview with me: https://rappahannockreview.com/.../issu.../katherine-gekker/

Thanks, Tommy Dean, for selecting my poem

“Bremerhaven, Germany, January 1954”

appearing in the Bay to Ocean Journal 2023,

& check out the amazing

Eastern Shore Writers Association

for their many programs & events that support writers.

Happy to share that my poem, “Abandon,” appears in the ASP Bulletin Issue 7, shortlisted in their first annual poetry contest. Thanks to the editors and judges. 

https://theaspbulletin.com/abandon-katherine-gekker/

Who knew that my poetry would ever appear on the same program as Emily Dickinson's? But it did, on February 12, 2023, at the Mexican Cultural Institute, DC.

This concert was part of the

National Philharmonic Chamber Series.

Program
Barbara Harbach: “Emily!” based on poems by Emily Dickinson
Eric Ewazen: To Cast a Shadow Again (Poetry by Katherine Gekker)
Lori Laitman: Two Dickinson Songs
Lori Laitman: Four Dickinson Songs
Carson Cooman: Chasing the Moon Down (Poetry by Katherine Gekker)

Delmarva Public Radio Broadcast, January 13, 2023

Host Don Rush talks about the latest edition of the literary magazine Delmarva Review with executive editor Wilson Wyatt, poetry editor Anne Colwell and poetry assistant editor Katherine Gekker about the latest issue.

DPR interview

My poem, “When / Then / That,” from Delmarva Review, Vol. 13, was nominated for inclusion in Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, 46th Edition, and republished on The Talbot Spy with my author’s note:

“When a significant relationship ends painfully, we often find ourselves rehashing the turning points, the decisions, the regrets. With the repetition of “when, then, that,” I hope to create an unsettling and even ominous litany that will evoke the human tendency to torture ourselves with unwelcome memories and afterthoughts.”

Read my poem,

“Egg / Lion / Stone," 

in Quartet Journal’s
inaugural issue (scroll down), Winter 2021, nominated for the Best of the Net anthology by the editors.

Author photo by Lianna Gekker

Explore my poetry collection,
In Search of Warm Breathing Things,
published by Glass Lyre Press.

Order online from Glass Lyre Press, Amazon, or Bookshop.org.
Also available from Browseabout Books, Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Cover art by Katherine J. Williams