15 Bytes Book Award Winners for Poetry

Authors Nancy Takacs, Wade Bentley, and Rob Carney, the winner and finalists for the 2016 15 Bytes Book awards, read from their works. Nancy Takacs, winner of the 2016 15 Bytes Book Award for poetry, will be joined by this year’s finalists, Rob Carney (for 88 Maps) and C. Wade Bentley (for What is Mine) for a reading and celebration of poetry. Takacs’ winning collection Blue Patina (Blue Begonia Press, 2015) was selected by judges assembled by 15 Bytes and charged with awarding a winner based on the nominees’ quality of writing/artistry; insight into Utah landscape and/or culture and/or the author’s connection to Utah (i.e., is or was a Utahn); and, finally, the indefinable quality that makes a book special and unforgettable The 15 Bytes Book Awards, currently in its 4th year, is a program of Artists of Utah and its monthly online magazine and blog, 15 Bytes. Categories include fiction, poetry and art book (next year creative nonfiction will be added). You can read the citations for two poetry finalists and the winner here, and the 15 Bytes review of the winning collection, Blue Patina, here. “[T]he natural world is deeply embedded in her language. Human existence coincides with the earth’s natural rhythms to create a spatial and temporal topography—what is routine in nature becomes ritual beneath the speaker’s observant eye.” –from the citation. About Nancy Takacs: A resident of Wellington, Utah, in Carbon County, Takacs is the author of three poetry chapbooks and two full-length books of poetry, Blue Patina and Preserves (City Art Press, 2004). In September, Finishing Line Press will release her collection Red Voice. Most recently she was awarded the Juniper Prize for her collection The Worrier. This event is made possible with support from 15 Bytes, City Art, and Utah Humanities.