Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Grand Prize Carolina Woman Writing Contest, Poetry for Their Freedom Award, 2012 Nautilus Silver Award for Poetry and the Gold Medal for Poetry in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for In the Palms of Angels (2011, Press 53); Honorable Mention for Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize; Finalist for the 2012 Rita Dove Poetry Prize; First Place for Poetry in the 19th Annual Carteret Writers Poetry Contest; First Place in Poetry in the the Writers' Ink Guild Fields of the Earth Poetry Contest; First Place in the Love Category in the North Carolina Poetry Society 2011 Writing Contest; One of eleven winners/finalists in the Internationl Nazim Hikmet Poetry Contest; Second Place, The Poetry Council of North Carolina's 2008 Ellen-Johnston-Hale Contest for Light Verse; Honorable Mention, The North Carolina Poetry Society's 2009 Lyman Haiku Contest; Honorable Mention, The North Carolina Poetry Society's 2009 Caldwell Nixon Jr. Contest; Second Place, The Poetry Council of North Carolina's 2009 James Larkin Pearson Contest for Free Verse and Experimental Form