Miriam Celeste Ramos has won Shooter’s inaugural Poetry Competition with “The Long Arm”, a free-verse poem that impressed the contest’s readers with its raw energy and emotional power.

Ramos, a New Yorker living in London, said she originally wrote the poem to be performed aloud – fitting for verse with a strong voice and insistent, Beat-style rhythm. In addition to poetry, Ramos has written fiction, films and essays; more about her work can be found at www.miriamisms.tumblr.com. As the winning entry, “The Long Arm” appears in Shooter Issue #5 (to be released next week), as well as online here.

A humorous poem, “B&Q Blues” by Stephen Williams, finished second in the contest and also appears online. Williams writes comic poetry and teaches secondary school English in North Yorkshire; he maintains a poetry website at www.jiggerypoetry.com.

All winners from Shooter’s short story and poetry competitions can be found on the Competition Winners page. The 2017 Short Story Competition will open for submissions next week (along with submissions for Shooter’s summer issue), and the Poetry Competition will return in August – stay tuned for further details!