Anique Sara Taylor’s chapbook Civil Twilight is Winner of the 2022 Blue Light Poetry Prize. Her full-length poetry book Where Space Bends was published in May 2020 by Finishing Line Press. Despite issues with long term chronic illness, Taylor is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her work has appeared in Rattle, Common Ground Review, Adanna, St. Mark’s Poetry Project’s The World, Stillwater Review, Earth’s Daughters, Cover Magazine. The National Poetry Magazine of the Lower East Side among others. Her chapbook Poems is published by Unimproved Editions Press.
First Prize
2022 • Civil Twilight • Blue Light Poetry Prize Winner
Finalist • Semi-Finalist • Short-Listed • Long-Listed
2024 • Civil Twilight • Short-Listed for Poetry • International Rubery Book Award
2024 • Civil Twilight • Finalist in Poetry • Feathered Quill Book Awards
2024 • Civil Twilight • Finalist in Book Cover Design • Feathered Quill Book Awards
2024 • Gathering Feathered Strips of Prayer Before Morning • Semifinalist
Cutbank Chapbook Contest
2023 • When Black Opalescent Birds Still Circled the Globe • Finalist
Harbor Review’s Inaugural 2023 Jewish Women’s Prize
2023 • Feathered Strips of Prayer Before Morning • Finalist
Minerva Rising Chapbook Contest
2023 • Cobblestone Mist • Longlisted Finalist
Small Harbor Editions’ Marginalia Series.
2021 • “Plum Island” • Nominated for a PushCart Award
2019 • “The Train”• Finalist for Best Historical Poem • Charter Oak Award
2015 • Under the Ice Moon • Finalist • Blue Light Press’ Chapbook Contest
2014 • Where Space Bends • Finalist • Blue Light Press Chapbook Contest
2014 • Where Space Bends • Finalist • Minerva Rising Chapbook Contest
Her work has appeared in several anthologies: The Lake Rises, poems to & for our bodies of water (Stockport Flats Press), Pain and Memory, Reflections on the Strength of the Human Spirit in Suffering (Editions Bibliotekos, Inc.), Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women (Kasva Press) among others. The Strangeness of April is in July 2023 Red Noise Collective Anthology: Tide
Taylor has co-authored works for HBO, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster and a three-act play performed by Playwrights Horizons and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her Holocaust poem “The Train” was a 2019 finalist in the Charter Oak Award for Best Historical Poem. Where Space Bends in earlier chapbook forms was chosen Finalist in 2014 by both Minerva Rising and Blue Light Press’ Chapbook Competitions. Under the Ice Moon was chosen Finalist in Blue Light Press’ 2015 Chapbook Competition.
She teaches/taught Creative Writing for Benedictine Hospital’s Oncology Support Program, Bard LLI, Writers in the Mountains. She holds a Poetry MFA (Drew University), Diplôme (The Sorbonne, Paris), a Drawing MFA and Painting BFA (With Highest Honors / Pratt Institute) and a Master of Divinity Degree. She studied literature at Antioch College, Poetry at St. Mark’s Poetry Project with Alice Notley, then Bernadette Mayer, and has been a regular at Wallson Glass Poem-Making Sessions with Geoffrey Nutter.
An award-winning artist, Taylor’s art has been featured in numerous galleries including The Bruce Museum, CT, The Monmouth Museum, NJ, The Noyes Museum, NJ, The Puffin Foundation, NJ, The Cork Gallery at Avery Fisher Hall, NYC, The Bronfman Center Gallery, NYC.
An avid supporter of community events, Taylor organized the Phoenicia Spoken Word series, which produced several ongoing poetry&writing events in&around Phoenicia. She and Sparrow taught a weekly Phoenicia Poetry Workshop.
While living in NYCs Lower East Side (East Village), she and Etan Ben-Ami edited an excellent (though short-lived) magazine: Cheap Review. They published (among others) Bernadette Mayer, Jim Brodey, Simon Pettet, Tom Savage, Ellen Mudd, Sparrow, Bob Holman, Steve Carey, Peter Bushyeager, Anique Taylor, Sheila Alson, Alice Notley, Elinor Nauen, Norman MacAfee, Bill Kushner.
Taylor was a Featured Reader at St. Mark’s Poetry Project, Dixon Place (and numerous Ulster County venues). She was a regular in group readings in NYC at The Knitting Factory, ABC No Rio, The Cedar Tavern, Charas, Tompkins Square Arts Festival. And in Group Readings: Eve Packer’s What Happens Next Series, and Jeffrey Cyphers Wright’s The New Romantics.