Shelter Island Library To Award First Annual Bliss Morehead Poetry Grant

The Shelter Island Library has announced the inaugural Bliss Morehead Poetry Grant. A $1,000 prize will be awarded annually to the winner of a poetry competition that will be held each April.

Morehead was a resident of Shelter Island who, after a career in advertising, dedicated much of her life to the art of poetry. As a gifted poet herself, she sought to share “this most complex of cultural achievements,” the library stated in a release.

Bliss, who received a master’s of fine arts degree from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, was the founder and curator of the Shelter Island Poetry Project, which produced poetry readings at the library each April, which is National Poetry Month. As curator for the project, she asked poets and readers to present carefully selected poems revolving around an annual theme.

Morehead wrote about what she called “the frustrating and occasionally illuminating work we all take upon ourselves when we are snatched up by the demanding nanny/muse and forced to admit that yes — we are poets. Or are attempting to be poets.” In its release, the library stated that it hoped the grant would encourage those who have taken up the challenge of writing poetry to share it in the competition.

The contest is open to unpublished poets age 17 and older who live on the East End (from Riverhead east) and Shelter Island. Entries will be accepted until April 8. The winner will be chosen by a three-member panel of judges made up of Irene Cornell, George Held and Charity Robey.

The winner will be announced on April 18 and invited to read their poetry at a reception at the library on April 22.

The theme for 2022 is “Delight and Despair.” The contest organizers have asked that entrants keep in mind the words of Morehead: “I am a professional writer, editor and creative consultant, and over the years words have been very good to me. I, in turn, have been good to them right back — taking none of them for granted, weeding out the excessive and overwrought so the best may shine, becoming passionate about a ‘,’ versus a ‘…’ Style and diction and point of view matter a lot to me; I think about them on a daily basis.”

The grant was established by Mike Zisser in memory of his wife, the late Bliss Morehead Zisser, who died in June 2020.

Participants have been asked to submit their poem and application via email with “Bliss Morehead Poetry Grant” in the subject line to Jocelyn Ozolins at jozolins@silibrary.org.