Nominations and Awards
Rosa Sophia was awarded the 2023 Christopher F. Kelly Award for Poetry from the Academy of American Poets for “Villanelle at 37,” “World Beast,” and “Reminders from the Senior Tech to the Apprentice Mechanic on Her First Day.”
Rosa Sophia’s short essays, “They Call Me Buzz Jackson,” “When Our Engine Died,” and “Miles,” were finalists in Bellingham Review’s 2021 Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction.
“Miles” was also a semifinalist in the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry. “When Our Engine Died” was a finalist in Columbia Journal’s Online Nonfiction Contest.
Her Poem “Why I Need My Lover to Be Careful” was a finalist in the Foundry Prize for Poetry.
“Take This Transmission for Instance” was awarded Runner-Up in the 2020 Florida International University Student Literary Awards, judged by poet Jan Beatty. Published in Philadelphia Stories magazine.
Praise for “Villanelle at 37,” “World Beast,” and “Reminders from the Senior Tech to the Apprentice Mechanic on Her First Day” from poet Catherine Bowman, judge in the 2023 FIU Student Literary Awards:
In an exquisite and stunning sequence, the sonnet serves as a world beast, the villanelle an abiding altar, a poem of apprenticeship, a kind of ars poetica. Fueled by a music that is both sorrowful and celebratory, these poems guide us through lush, labyrinthine realms of ancestry, memory, bejeweled gooseberries, mechanic tricks, in-between spaces and sacred spaces with a sumptuous and heartbreaking attention to the world and word.
Praise for “Take This Transmission for Instance” from poet Jan Beatty, judge in the 2020 FIU Student Literary Awards:
The emotional depth of ‘Take This Transmission for Instance’ that is embodied in the story of the transmission is admirable. The strong sense of detail supports this sense of loss and regret in a very moving way. As the poem continues, the voice only grows stronger into a beautiful love poem.
Poetry
“Braids,” The Closed Eye Open, page 48, Issue XI, Spring 2024
“Villanelle at 37,” Sentience Literary Journal, Fall/Winter 2023, Vol. 2, Issue 3 – Gardens
“Clutch,” SWWIM Every day, Supporting Women Writers in Miami, June 28, 2023
“Miles,” Thimble Literary Magazine, Vol. 6. No 1., Summer 2023
“Night School Sonnet,” Limp Wrist, Issue #5
“Why I Need My Lover to Be Careful,” Writer’s Foundry Review, Issue 2, Spring 2023
Creative Nonfiction
“On the Battlefield in Jupiter,” Islandia Journal, Issue #3: This short piece of creative nonfiction is part of a work-in-progress, a spiritual memoir collection entitled When the Rock Crumbles. It features historical reenactment photos by my friend and fellow historian, Andrew Morris Foster. Only available in print. Copies can be purchased on the journal’s website.
“Five Strategies for Coping: Advice to Young Patients Entering College,” FPA Quarterly of the Facial Pain Association, Spring 2022: In 2022, I was one of the recipients of the Facial Pain Resiliency Academic Scholarship, and my winning essay was published in the Spring 2022 issue of FPA Quarterly. If interested, the article is on page 13 of the issue linked here.
Published Interviews
“Hybridity in Indigenous Writing: An Interview with Poet Elgin Jumper,” Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Spring 2023.
“The Hybrid Forms Club: An Eight-Spoked Collaborative Interview,” Tinder Box Poetry Journal
Books by Rosa Sophia at #TorquesGarage
Village of North Palm Beach: A History (Arcadia Publishing) is the history of the Village of North Palm Beach in northern Palm Beach County. Available now.
Overdue in Paradise: The Library History of Palm Beach County (Palmango Press) is a collection of essays about Palm Beach County library history, including an essay by Rosa Sophia on the history of the North Palm Beach Public Library.
Meet Me in the Garden is a standalone romance novel set in South Florida (Limitless Publishing, 2015).
The House Guest is a paranormal mystery set in rural Pennsylvania (Limitless Publishing, 2015).
Over the Ivy Wall and Orion Cross My Sky are part of the Clearwater Romance Series (Sunshine Press). They follow the lives of four young people in Clearwater, Wyoming as they seek stability despite their traumatic pasts.
Sphere of Influence: An Approach to Self-Defense by M.D. Holden (Lady June Press) is a collection of the martial arts writings of Rosa’s brother, Miles, who took his own life in August 2015.
Praise for Sphere of Influence:
This book reads like someone who has been doing this for several decades. It is very technical and sophisticated material. His passion for the arts shined through in each chapter that I read.
— Grandmaster Isaiah Gathings, author of The Book of Six Tenets: Martial Arts and Life and Instructor at The Academy of Soo Do Thai