COUNTERCLOCK

2021 Winners

Poetry

1st Place | Rodolfo Avelar, “somewhere, over the rainbow”

Rodolfo Avelar is a poet and artist from Fresno, CA. They hold a Bachelor of Arts from Fresno State, where they studied English Literature and Creative Writing. Their poetry projects queer people of color into science fiction, the future, outer space, and queer liberation. They are currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry from UC Riverside, as they write their first collection of poetry. In 2019, they were awarded a summer internship at Milkweed Editions, in which they designed and edited book length poetry manuscripts. This work cemented their goal to work in editing to dismantle barriers of entry for queer poets of color by creating opportunities for, giving life to, and caring for them and their work. They hope to publish, edit, & teach poetry, perfect their desk set-up, and play some video games along the way.

2nd Place | Serrina Zou, “I-Ching for Immortality”

Serrina Zou is a Chinese-American writer from San Jose, California. She has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, the Poetry Society of the UK, and Frontier Poetry, among others. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, AAWW: The Margins, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. When she is not writing, Serrina can be found feeding her Philz Coffee addiction or devouring a tower of novels. She will attend Columbia University in the fall of 2021.

Prose

1st Place | Yong-Yu Huang, “Butterfly Kingdom”

Yong-Yu Huang is a Taiwanese writer living in Malaysia. Her work has been previously published or is forthcoming in The Interlochen Review, Sine Theta Magazine, and Up The Staircase Quarterly, among others. She has been recognized by Princeton University, The Kenyon Review, and Columbia College Chicago. In her free time, she can be found listening to Studio Ghibli soundtracks.

2nd Place | Yejin Suh, “Batmen”

Yejin Suh is a student from New Jersey whose work appears or is forthcoming in Half Mystic, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and Polyphony Lit, among others. She has been recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation and Princeton University. She is an incoming freshman at Princeton University.