Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone

The taste of a penny. Running for the bus. Carpets rolled and stacked like logs into a child's mountain. Laura Shovan mines gems from the everyday caverns of life. From these moments Shovan collected Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone, inaugural winner of the Clarinda Harriss Poetry Prize. The prize is named in honor of Clarinda Harriss, eminent Baltimore poet, publisher, and professor of English at Towson University. Harriss, educated at Johns Hopkins University and Goucher College, is a widely published, award-winning poet. She also serves as editor and director of BrickHouse Books, Maryland's oldest literary press. In rounds of blind judging, Shovan's entry topped submissions by finalists from Oregon and Washington state. Nearly forty writers entered CityLit Press's first chapbook contest, which was judged by art critic and poet Michael Salcman.