2010 Cervena Barva Fiction Award
2010 Poets 11, District 7
2009 First Prize: Osmosis, “Japanese Maple Tanka”
2008/Ina Coolbrith Poet’s Award: “Torqued: For Richard Serra”
2008 June Poet of the Month, Poetica Magazine
2008 Featured Poet: PoetryMagazine.com
2007 Ina Coolbrith Poet’s Award: “Anthology Sonnet”
2005 Best Fiction Award, Chaffin Journal, “Paris Blues Redux”
2008 Pushcart Nomination, “Transported”
2006 Carver Nomination, “The Art Critic”
“A Dreamer’s Guide to Cities” San Francisco Bay Press, Virginia/San Francisco: 2009
In her second full-length poetry collection, Joan Gelfand explores the poignancy of living in a world that is war-torn and environmentally damaged. With a nod to the humorous paradox of modern life, Gelfand writes from the vantage point of a mother, an artist, and a Zen meditator. “A Dreamer’s Guide…” looks beyond the surface of our lives at the connections that make live worth living, and the sensual details that color it. Read More
Seeking Center: A Collection of Poems by Joan Gelfand, Two Bridges Press, Richmond CA: 2006
In Seeking Center, Joan Gelfand joins the reader in a free-wheeling discussion, beyond the poems themselves, regarding what is poetry today, here at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Read More