John Poch wins Justice Prize

Two Men Fighting with a Knife, John Poch's second collection of poetry, is the 2008 Donald Justice Poetry Prize winner. David Mason, Donald Justice Poetry Prize judge, said of Poch’s manuscript: “In spite of its rueful undercurrent of mortality, Two Men Fighting with a Knife is one of the wittiest books I have read in years, full of an active thrust and parry.

John Poch mines these poems from a rich vein of American vernacular. He's a
raconteur of Texas and 'the old west ins and outs,' offering a range of moods from anger to hilarity and grief, hewing close to actual lives, surprising us with crackerjack phrasing and vital talk."