Able Muse has just released the announcement of their 2021 Write Prize for Poetry and Fiction winners. The submissions were judged anonymously by the Able Muse Contest Committee and the final judges, William Baer (fiction) and Jehanne Dubrow (poetry).

Amina Gautier’s “We Ask Why” wins the Write Prize for fiction. Baer said the piece is “a deeply moving story that raises serious questions about personal identity and parentage.” The winning story will be published in the Winter 2021/22 edition of Able Muse.

FICTION HONORABLE MENTION:

• Phylis C. Dryden– “Pink Eggs and Spam”

FICTION SHORTLIST:

• Amina Gautier – “You’ll Go”
• Victoria Mac – “Shannon’s Hair”
• Charlotte Pregnolato – “Moonless”
• Alan Sincic – “The Book Of Naps”
• Alan Sincic – “Not What You Think”
• Rob Wright – “Between Worlds”

E. D. Watson’s “Twelfth of May” wins the Write Prize for Poetry. Dubrow states “What I so appreciate abut this poem is the wryness, its gift for evoking landscape…and the speaker’s sudden hunger in the early aftermath of trauma.” The winning poem and the finalists will be also be published in the Winter 2021/22 issue.

POETRY FINALISTS:

• Stephen Gibson– “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”
• D. R. Goodman – “Wallet”
• Leona Sevick – “My Mother’s Kitchen”

POETRY HONORABLE MENTION:

• Paula Bonnell– “Black and White”
• Partridge Boswell – “The Breakup”
• Brian Brodeur – “Hard Water”
• Leona Sevick – “Filial”
• Natalie Staples – “She Looks Out over the Meadow”
• Marilyn L. Taylor – “One by One”
• Ryan Wilson – “Next Up”

Stay tuned for the 2021 Able Muse Book Award announcement.