Submitted by Natalie Peeterse

Open Country Press is proud to announce the winner of the 2020 Open Country Chapbook Contest. Khaty Xiong chose “Barefoot Up the Mountain,” by Tara Mesalik MacMahon of Friday Harbor, Washington.

Tara Mesalik MacMahon, a graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Business School, is an emerging poet. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Rhino, Red Hen Press’s “New Moons” Anthology, Nimrod International Journal, Dogwood a Journal of Poetry and Prose, Duende, Cold Mountain Review, Cathexis Northwest Press, Passager, among others. Honors include Finalist for the 2019 Dogwood Poetry Prize; Nimrod’s 2019 Francine Ringold Award for New Writers; and the 2017 Patricia Dobler Poetry Prize. Additionally, Tara and her brother Mark have co-authored a children’s chapter book, “The Closet of Dreams,” forthcoming in 2021 (Lanier Press). She resides in the beautiful San Juan Islands with her husband Paul and their rescue dog Hector.