Ex Ophidia Press

08/10/2026

We’re feeling inspired and joyful after a week of poetry in Nebraska with Colleen Morton Busch, whose collection “Smolder” won our 2025 poetry contest!

Pictured is Colleen sharing a reading with Jessica Poli, poet and author of “Red Ochre” at Chapters Books & Gifts in Seward, Nebraska, and with Shyla Shehan, poet and author of “Mining the Gap,” at The Bookworm.

Thank you to Colleen, to our partner poets and to everyone who came out to hear these beautiful poems.

Don’t forget: We’re accepting submissions for the 2026 contest through Sept 16. Learn more and submit your work at ExOphidiaPress.org

08/03/2026

Get ready for a week of beautiful poetry and connection with fellow creatives!

This week, poet Colleen Morton Busch visits Nebraska for a series of poetry readings tied to her collection “Smolder,” the winning work of the 2025 Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize, our annual poetry book contest.

The events:

— Chapters Books & Gifts in Seward — Tuesday, Aug. 4, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with Nebraska poet Jessica Poli, the managing editor of Prairie Schooner.

— The Bookworm in Omaha — Wednesday, Aug. 5, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., with Shyla Shehan, editor of The Good Life Review, a literary journal based in Omaha.

— Gallery 1516 in Omaha — Thursday, August 6, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Attendees can view art, enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres, and purchase a signed copy of “Smolder.” Admission is free, but registration is required at gallery1516.org.

— Francie & Finch Bookshop in Lincoln — Friday, Aug. 7, 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., with Judy Lorenzen, a Nebraska poet and author of “Turning Back to Her Love Pages.”

We’re excited to see you this week!

07/28/2026

Next week, we’re thrilled to host poet Colleen Morton Busch, the winner of our 2025 Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize, for a series of poetry readings and a writers workshop in Omaha, Lincoln, and Seward.

Colleen is a writer, poet, and lay-ordained Zen practitioner who serves as board president at Berkeley Zen Center. She grew up in the midwest but has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years.

Her prize-winning collection “Smolder” is a collection of poems about the many kinds of fire blazing inside life. Many of the poems were inspired by the pains and losses she and her husband experienced after he was diagnosed with smoldering multiple myeloma 20 years ago.

“Some of the poems in ‘Smolder’ were written at the time of my husband’s diagnosis, for an audience of one — myself — because I needed to put language to my experience. I needed poetry’s medicine,” Colleen says. “At the time, we couldn’t imagine he would be living the life he is now — even cycling with a team across Iceland this August to raise funds for the International Myeloma Foundation.”

“But from the beginning, we didn’t see myeloma as an enemy, but rather as an invitation to take nothing for granted and to touch gratitude,” she continued. “Life is a gift. It isn’t always the gift we expected or wanted, but it’s a precious gift. That’s my Zen training talking, but you don’t have to be a Zen student to know that the appropriate response to life is wonder. That’s what I hope shines through the poems in ‘Smolder’. Even in the midst of grief and loss, there is joy, there’s aliveness, if you’re willing to let it find you.”

Learn more and purchase a copy of Smolder at exophidiapress.org/books/smolder.

07/17/2026

Ex Ophidia Press is accepting submissions to our annual poetry contest!

The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Contest, established in 2016, fosters the publication of excellent poetry in elegantly designed books. The winning author receives $2,000, ten copies of the book, a publishing contract with national distribution, and a discount on book purchases.

The mission of our press is to publish English language poetry that explores new territories of the imagination by using traditional techniques of poetry: rhythm and melody, imagery and metaphor, irony and insight — in other words, apt language for important ideas. We intend our books to mirror this mission.

The contest is open to all authors writing in English who reside in North America. Entrants must be at least 18 years old. An entry fee of $25 helps our press continue to platform and publish poets and their work.

Submissions close Sept. 16, 2026. Learn more about submission guidelines and enter the contest at ExOphidiaPress.org/contest.

07/07/2026

Calling all poets, writers, creatives, and anyone with an interest in the written and spoken word — in August, we’re thrilled to welcome poet Colleen Morton Busch to Nebraska for a series of poetry readings and a writers workshop!

Colleen is the winner of the 2025 Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize, our annual poetry book contest that fosters the publication of excellent poetry in elegantly designed books.

Join us to hear Colleen read her beautiful poems, purchase a signed copy of her winning work “Smolder,” and connect with our creative community:

📚 Chapters Books & Gifts in Seward — Tuesday, Aug. 4, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with Nebraska poet Jessica Poli, the managing editor of Prairie Schooner.

🪱 The Bookworm Omaha — Wednesday, Aug. 5, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., with Shyla Shehan, editor of The Good Life Review, a literary journal based in Omaha.

🖼️ Gallery 1516 in Omaha — Thursday, August 6, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Attendees can view art, enjoy complimentary hors d'oeuvres, and purchase a signed copy of “Smolder.” Admission is free, but registration is required at gallery1516.org.

🪶 Francie & Finch Bookshop in Lincoln — Friday, Aug. 7, 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., with Lorenzen, a Nebraska poet and author of “Turning Back to Her Love Pages.”

✍️ Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha — Saturday, Aug. 8, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Colleen’s “Wonder in the Garden” writing workshop will offer insights into the creative process, examine poetry that focuses on the natural world and its connection to healing, with time and space for writing and discussion. The workshop is $35 (20% off for garden members), and registration is required at LauritzenGardens.org.

Learn more at ExOphidiaPress.org. We hope to see you there!

07/06/2026

Join us at one of the many poetry readings in Nebraska with poet Colleen Morton Busch, August 4-8, 2026. Dates, times and venue details on Ex Ophidia Press website: www.exophidiapress.org

05/27/2026

Advance Praise for Smolder by Colleen Morton Busch:
Smolder is a book of illnesses, desires, painful might-have-beens, struggles to conceive, excruciating waiting, and also of the luck that makes us feel and binds us one to another, and of the miracle of living, full stop. Read these poems and you too may feel aware of the fragile, improbable miracle—your bounded time; your own muddled love and desire; that something in these “defies extinction.” Smolder burns with a great deal of incandescent light. - Tess Taylor, Author of Rift Zone

01/26/2026

Ex Ophidia Press's 2025 Poetry Contest Winner has four new poems in the Ekphrastic Review that focus on Frida Kahlo's dresses -

San Francisco Skirts In San Francisco circa 1930 where Frida lived before New York and Detroit there was no shortage of illegal spirits for sale but Frida spent her precious coins on silks. ...

12/06/2025

Exciting News!!
Ex Ophidia Press is excited to announce that the winner of the 2025 Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Contest is Smolder by Colleen Morton Busch. The winning book will be released in the summer of 2026. Colleen Morton Busch is the author of the nonfiction book Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire (Penguin Press), selected as a best book of the year by Publisher's Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Barnes and Noble. In Smolder, her debut poetry collection, she returns to her first writing language to explore the many kinds of fire flickering inside a life. Her poems and prose have been published widely, from Willow Springs, New Orleans Review, and Poet Lore to Orion, The Washington Post, and Yoga Journal, where she was a senior editor. She grew up in the heartland and lives, writes, plays, and practices Zen in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more about her work, visit www.colleenmortonbusch.com
Photo Credit: © artstudio23.com

11/06/2025

A few months ago, we celebrated "Recovery Commands" by Abby E. Murray our 2024 contest winner. Thanks to everyone who attending readings and workshops. Be on the lookout for news about our 2025 contest winner!