Teresa K. Miller with Carol Muske-Dukes “Borderline Fortune”

Poet-judge Carol Muske-Dukes selected Teresa K. Miller as a National Poetry Series winner. Listen to her explain that decision. Miller discusses “Borderline Fortune,” the one that won her the prize, when she was about ready to give up on herself—her fourth manuscript, and eighth application, submitted across fourteen years. “Borderline Fortune” is a poetry book with a voice in a dying world; it is a non-narrative with a narrative, an intergenerational story that doesn’t connect the dots.

Excerpt from Borderline Fortune by Teresa K. Miller

I came here to conjure you.

What may I say—

Who bore me

to the shore, pressed

If I had a child, she was already mine. We did it backward,

skipping time.

We lashed a raft together and set off paddling. I wasn’t

yet born. The water dried salty, reliable—cold.