Poems & Publications

Poems Online

Some of Celisa Steele’s poems are available online:

Publications

Tar River Poetry

Celisa Steele’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the following publications:

Awards and Honors

  • Tar River Poetry nominated my poem “Fear Not the Design of the Angels,” published in its spring 2013 issue, for a Pushcart Prize.
  • In September 2013, Celisa was named to a two-year term as poet laureate of Carrboro, North Carolina. The Carrboro Arts Committee asked Celisa to continue as poet laureate for an additional year; she completed her three years as the poet laureate of Carrboro at the end of June 2016.
  • Celisa was awarded one-week residency at Wildacres Retreat in 2013.
  • Aimee Nezhukumatathil awarded Celisa’s poem “Jellyfish Creed” one of two honorable mentions in the Rita Dove Poetry Award in the Salem College 2012 International Literary Awards.
  • “To a Son on the Verge of Divorce” was chosen by Cathy Smith Bowers as the winner of the Broad River Review 2011 Rash Award in Poetry.
  • “Beauties and Beasts” took first place in The South Carolina Review’s 2009-2010 Poetry Contest, judged by Matthew Dickman.
  • For the poem “How Language Is Lost,” Celisa was selected as one of ten winners in the 2010 Nâzım Hikmet Poetry Competition.
  • Celisa was selected as one of four participants from the central region of North Carolina to work with distinguished poet Becky Gould Gibson for the 2009-2010 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series.
  • “Four on the Fourth” was recognized with an honorable mention in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2009 Thomas H. McDill Award.
  • “Thoughts from the Tarmac” was awarded first prize in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2009 Joanna Catherine Scott Award.
  • “Elegy for a Scarf Borrowed from a Mother Now Dead and Left on a Trolley Car in Budapest at Christmastime” was awarded third place in the 2007 Charles Shull Contest for Traditional Poetry, sponsored by the Poetry Council of North Carolina.
  • “A Husband Laments Being Alone on a Business Trip in the Caribbean and Wishes His Wife a Virus” was awarded third place in the 2007 Ellen T. Johnston-Hale Contest for Light Verse, sponsored by the Poetry Council of North Carolina.
  • “Sometimes I Want to Kiss You at the Grocery Store” (as “Sometimes I Want to Kiss You in Aisle 7”) was recognized with an honorable mention in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2007 Poetry of Love Contest.
  • “Failure and Fame” was awarded third prize in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2007 Joanna Catherine Scott Award.
  • “Emily Examines a Family Photo” was awarded third place in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2004 Joanna Catherine Scott Award.
  • “Emily Just Before Easter” was awarded an honorable mention in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2002 Joanna Catherine Scott Award.