PARKERSBURG W.Va. (WVDN) – Parkersburg native and resident David B. Prather won the 2025 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize from Madville Publishing for his forthcoming fourth collection of poems, “A Heart that Stretches the Length of the Body.” His work was selected by final judge, Jeff Hardin. The prize award is a monetary publishing advance of $1,000 and a publishing contract. Prather is an undergraduate of West Virginia University, and he received his Master’s degree from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. He is currently serving as the Director of the West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Spring Writers Conference.
His first three collections, “We Were Birds,” “Shouting at an Empty House,” and “Bending Light with Bare Hands,” are available from the publishers and various online sellers. He was recently a mentor for the initial Tamarack Foundation (West Virginia Creative Network) Literary Fellowship Program. For more information about Prather, visit his website at www.davidbprather.com.
Prather says of the forthcoming collection that it is a series of poems in three sections that explore the lies and superstitions we are told or that we tell which influence our entire lives. Each of the poems is titled with an insect’s name and then uses that insect as a means of exploring a topic. The title of the collection is a reference to the vascular system of a grasshopper.
He also wanted to shine a light on the many “invisible extinctions” that happen around us every day. Many human activities wipe out entire species because they are limited to a minute environment. Often, insects disappear before we even know they exist.
