[Alex Pepple]

It's time to declassify our Top-Secret Sonnet Bake-off and unveil the Who's Whos. But first, a big thank you to our Top Secret DG, for a most successful event, with a strong list of finalists. And thank you to all who submitted, and all the participants of the event. Without further ado, it's my pleasure to tally the popular vote count and bring you the popular winners, as presented to me by our TSDG--

TOP THREE WINNERS of the 2014 Sonnet Bake-off are:

1. "Birthday Visit" by Ed Shacklee (45 points)
2. "Less Love More Heads on Pikes " by Ann Drysdale (33 points)
3. "Olēka" by Catherine Chandler (31 points)

Congratulations to our WINNER Ed Shacklee!

And Double Congratulations to Ed, whose winning sonnet will also be included in the forthcoming issue of Able Muse, print edition! (As I mentioned in the bulletins, I might include the winner in the next Able Muse, and now, 'might' has become 'shall'!)

Congratulations also to our second- and third-place sonneteers, Ann Drysdale and Cathy Chandler respectively.

Next, here are the remaining finalists in order of popular votes received:

4. "Lines" by Gregory Palmerino (29 points)
5. "The Hunt" by Charlie Southerland (25 points)
5. "Apache Freezing Drizzle" by Ed Granger (20 points)
7. "Portrait of Chichikov as a Mortgage Trader" by Jodie Reyes (12 points)
8. "Valediction Against Mourning" by Manny Blacksher (7 points -- more first place votes broke tie)
9. "From the Top" by Timothy Richardson (7 points)
10. "The Ex-Terrestrial" by Brian Allgar (6 point)
11. "While Listening to Bells" by Rob Wright (5 point)
12. "Something About the Apples" by Athar C. Pavis (4 point)

Congratulations and thank you to all!


Finally, who is our expert sonneteer aka Top Secret DG? Check the TSDG's posts, with username should be, by now, decoded and declassified!

Cheers,
...Alex

[E. Shaun Russell]

Congrats to all involved! It's always great to see a blend of familiar and unfamiliar names among the selected poets -- hopefully a few of the latter will eventually become the former!

[Michael Cantor]

Bob Crawford! Well, now I know why you've been slow answering recent e-mails. Great job, good comments, well done. Congrats to the winners and all the finalists, and thanks, Bob, for all the work this entailed!

[Pedro Poitevin]

Congratulations to every finalist, and especially to Ed, the winner of the popular vote! Congratulations also to Ann and Cathy for the second and third places. Thanks to Robert Crawford for his good work.

Pedro

[Siham Karami]

Huge congrats to Ed!! And also to Ann and Cathy!! Really excellent work all around. It was very tough to choose. And thanks to Robert Crawford for a really fine job in this competition.

Best,
Siham

[Ann Drysdale]

That was fun! Thanks to Alex and Rob, thanks to all who entered and voted.

And, from me, a special word of thanks to Quincy, the sonnet's onlie begetter, who coined that call-to-arms right here, on the Sphere, in a discussion on the workshopping process, back in 2010. From a wimp to a warrior, with respect.

[Catherine Chandler]

Thank you Alex and Robert, and congratulations, Ed, on your winning sonnet. Today I begin my three -day sonnet workshop with Dick Davis. Long live the sonnet!

[David Anthony]

Congrats to all.

[Maryann Corbett]

Thanks indeed to Bob and Alex for all your work--quite a haul of sonnets to read, and if I understand correctly, Bob read all of them. It's good to see new names among the finalists, and I do hope those folks stick around. And many congratulations to Ed, Ann, and Catherine.

[Rob Wright]

Congratulations to Ed, Ann, and Catherine and to all. And a special thanks to Alex and Bob for all your hard work. It was, for me, a master class in how to write a sonnet.