natalie hanna is a queer, feminist, ottawa lawyer, of middle-eastern descent working with low income populations. her writing focuses on feminist, political, and personal themes. She runs battleaxe press (small poetry press) / is the Administrative Director of the late lamented Sawdust Reading Series / served as newsletter editor and board member at Arc Poetry Magazine. She has published nearly a dozen poetry chapbooks to date, and her work, interviews, have appeared online and in print in various publications, including with Literary Landscapes, In/Words Magazine, phafours press, Hussy Press, Bywords, the Dusie Blog, the Chaudiere Books Blog, Canthius, shreeking violet press, and Peter F. Yacht Club, among others.
The Diana Brebner Prize [see my 2012 profile on the award here] is awarded yearly for the best poem written by a National Capital Region poet, who has not yet been published in book form. The prize honours the late Diana Brebner, an award-winning Ottawa-based poet who was devoted to fostering literary talent among new, local writers.
This year the judge for Arc’s Diana Brebner Prize was Ian Letourneau. As the winner of the $500 prize, he selected Dawn Steiner’s poem “Morning Walk,” as well as choosing Natalie Hanna’s “light conversation” for the honourable mention. Dawn Steiner had work in the above/ground press workshop anthology assignment: zero (2015).
The poets will be honoured and will read their poems at the 2019 Lampman Award Shortlist Reading, on October 3rd, 2019.
