Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize 伦纳德·L·米尔伯格'53高中诗歌奖旨在挖掘美国或国外的11年级学生的杰出文学创作，该学术活动由普林斯顿大学的刘易斯艺术中心（Lewis Center for the Arts）举办。本比赛的评委会由普林斯顿大学写作系的成员组成，如Michael Dickman，Yiyun Li，Paul Muldoon，James Richardson，Tracy K. Smith，Susan Wheeler和Monica Youn。

伦纳德·L·米尔伯格'53高中诗歌奖是普林斯顿设置的诗歌比赛，获奖诗歌可以在arts.princeton.edu上发表。比赛全程由普林斯顿大学教授评判。参与该诗歌比赛可以和世界各地同龄学生一起交流诗歌，隔空与普林斯顿大学教授碰撞诗歌文化。

竞赛官网：https://arts.princeton.edu/about/opportunities/high-school-contests/poetry-contest/

2024年高中诗歌大赛获奖诗歌第一名

Acadia Reynolds

Charleston, South Carolina

“Dissection of a Cow Eye”

Gloves first, I thicken my skin, plastic

snaps sin-smooth on my wrists, shower comebacks

beached on my teeth like whales, stomach up and screaming.

Scalpel sharp enough to shear away that hint

of a unibrow, bring it down, tap a rhythm on the blue-bleach

tablecloth. There’s meat still glinting around the eye,

like I clawed it out myself with tissue still

frothing under my nails. Cut it away, all those extra details,

get on the doctor’s scale backwards

so I don’t have to name the number. Peel up the iris

like a sticker and slice the cornea into tangerines,

the ones I fed my grandmother when her sickness

was broth-boned. As her hands hang limp

and she chews with molars exposed, I drain the vitreous fluid

and toss it in the trash, down beside the way my stomach pouts

in a tight tank top and her face when she calls me

one of those goddamn queers.

Tight-laced, that’s the word for her.

The crystalline lens, the stone strung at the center of the eye.

The lens of her, she says she wanted to be a Las Vegas

painted woman, dance like a lightning bug

and shake her blue breasts. I can imagine her around a bonfire,

moving her feathered hips for men

instead of ghosts, accompanied by a wordless roar

from the crowds hiding in the shadows.

She says I’d disgust any man with my body.

The lens has the homemade applesauce from the withered apples

that collect on her old trees, the midnight phoneline

ringing across her loneliness, the intricate braids she

leaves laid across my scalp like a crown.

I’ve picked the eye to pieces, scanned

and screened, it’s splayed out for me.

Blood on the wood, knife in the wood, put it all in the wood.

Lightsick, she’s fading, she’s juicing tangerines, writing her will,

hands to the sky and spine tree-twisted towards the ground.

I forgive her from the lens. I love her in the lens.

1.参赛作品可以是目前已经提交给其他比赛的诗歌吗？

可以。

2.参赛诗歌可以是已经在其他比赛中获奖的诗歌吗？

可以。

3.诗作可以是以前发表过的吗？

可以，如果诗作曾经发表过，请注明发表日期和媒体。

4.每个学生可以提交多少首诗歌？

申请人最多可以提交3首诗歌。

5.学生提交参赛作品会获得参赛证书吗？

不可以，由于参赛作品数量众多，只有获奖者和荣誉奖才会在比赛中得到认可。

6.我将如何了解比赛的获胜者？

在比赛奖品公布之前，只有获奖学生和获得荣誉奖的学生才会直接联系。比赛获奖者名单将于 2024 年 4 月公布。