Howling Bird Press has awarded its 2021 poetry prize to “The Second Longest Day of the Year” by Jean Prokott of Rochester, Minnesota. The press will publish the book in November, and along with publication, Prokott will receive a $1,000 prize.

Prokott’s work was chosen in a national competition from among more than 200 submissions.

“I see the book as a reflection of the inner vs. outer selves we experience day by day, hour by hour,” Prokott says. “Each of us goes from trying to understand, existentially, who we are, what our place is, what grief does to us—while at the same time trying to understand the same things from a political perspective. The collection moves between how our personal experience defines us as much as how political culture defines us.”