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2021 MAYDAY Fiction and Poetry Prize Winners

photograph of a young man and woman

On June 17, online literary magazine MAYDAY Magazine announced the results of their 2021 MAYDAY Prizes in poetry and fiction. The winners each received $1,000 and broadsides of their work will be available soon.

2021 MAYDAY Poetry Prize was judged by Jacques Rancourt. He selected “Garçon,” by A. Shaikh as the winner.

Finalists included “Southern Thundering” by Gustav Hibbett; “What My Mother Never Told Me” by Michael Meyerhofer; “During the Pandemic, I Watch Caddyshack Again & Again” by  Christina Olson; and “The Cousin’s Secret” by Lindsay Wilson.

For the 2021 MAYDAY Fiction Prize, Kali Wallace selected Haley Kennedy’s “Shapeless” as the winner.

Finalists included “Paradise” by Joshua Beggs; “The Book of Rusty” by Benjamin Drevlow; “Tia Marilena’s Rainbow Eggs” by Xenia Lane; “Lolly Pop” by Toby Lloyd; and “Valley State” by Reilly Weed. Semifinalists included “Verge” by Emma Eisler; “The Management” by Ron Heacock; “Nudists” by Jeffery Long; and “A Trip to Valpo” by Mark Williams.

MAYDAY also has a listing on NewPages, so don’t forget to swing by there, too.

2021 BLR Prize Winners

Bellevue Literary Review annually hosts the BLR Prizes for “writing related to themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body.” The winner of each genre receives $1000, the honorable mention receives $250, and all are published in the spring issue. This year’s spring issue was recently released featuring the 2021 winners.

Winners
“Tattoos” by Galen Schram (Fiction)
“The Tapeworm” by Amy V. Blakemore (Nonfiction)
“Never the Less” by Saleem Hue Penny (Poetry)

Honorable Mentions
“Admonition” by Benjamin Kessler (Fiction)
“Viable” by Justine Feron (Nonfiction)
“Yellowthroat” by Eileen Elizabeth Waggoner (Poetry)

Submissions for this year’s prizes are currently open until July 15. Visit the journal’s website to learn more.

Natalie Diaz Wins Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

On Friday, it was announced that poet Natalie Diaz won the Pulitzer for her second book of poems Postcolonial Love Poem. Diaz spoke about her book with The Arizona Republic, saying, “I knew that I wanted my body, the places I’ve come from, the people I come from, to be of consequence to the world and to kind of bring our perspectives and conversations to bear in our larger national conversations.”

Writing on the Indigenous experience, she explains her poetic viewpoint, “I, of course, have an Indigenous lens, but yet I think that Indigenous lens is extremely important to non-Indigenous peoples. We’re all fighting for our water. We’re all fighting for this Earth, for one another against injustice.”

See what else she said about the winning collection here.

CRAFT 2020 Creative Nonfiction Award Winners

craft logo on dark blue backgroundCRAFT has announced the winners and finalists of its 2020 Creative Nonfiction Awards judged by Joy Castro. The winning pieces and editors’ choice selections will be published this month, so stay tuned!

Winners

Tammy Delatorre: “The Ties That Bind”
Clare Fielder: “What You Don’t Know”
Liz Harmer: “Catalogue for a Coming of Age”

Editors’ Choice Selections

Sara Davis: “The Untimely Collaborators”
Marilyn Hope: “Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, Red”

Congratulations to the winners and finalists.

The 2021 Creative Nonfiction Award will open in the Fall. They are currently accepting entries to the First Chapters Contest through June 30. The judge is Masie Cochran of Tin House.

Boulevard’s 2020 Winning Emerging Writers

The Spring 2021 issue of Boulevard features the winner of the 2020 Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers and the winner of the 2020 Poetry Contest for Emerging Writers.

2020 Poetry Contest for Emerging Writers
Winner
“Black Zombi” by Bryan Byrdlong

Honorable Mentions
Esther Ra
Calvin Walds
Christine Robbins

2020 Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers
Winner
“The King’s Game” by Jonathan Wei

Runner-up
“Six Articles for Survival” by Laura Joyce-Hubbard

Grab a copy of the issue or check out these pieces on the journal’s website.

New Letters Award Winners

woman looking at a poster for a ballet performance

In the Winter/Spring 2021 issue of New Letters, there is a whole section dedicated to award winners.

Editor’s Choice Award
“Indigent” by Elizabeth Robinson

Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry
“Late Song: Time” and “The Art of the Deal” by Mark Wagenaar

Robert Day Award for Fiction
“Lobu Hoteru” by Jacob R. Weber

Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction
“Joan” by Rebecca Young

Visit New Letters‘ website to grab a copy of this issue and learn about each of these contests.

Sweetness of Honey

Guest Post by Christopher Nicholson.

The best friend I ever had was my dog Milo. He offered the best kind of love—not unconditional but predicated on the most reasonable conditions. I had to earn his love and could feel good about that, but he didn’t expect me to be perfect. This sensation is nothing new to most people who have had a pet.

In “Honey, I’m Home: Beyond the Rescue Door,” published in the Fall/Winter 2020-2021 edition of Magnets and Ladders, Bonnie Blose reminisces on sharing such a love with the titular cat, Honey, who found her at a local rescue shelter and chose her immediately. Honey had some traumatic experiences in her past that affected her behavior and didn’t make her an easy pet. Blose committed from the very beginning to give her the love she needed, no matter what, for however much time they had together. She did exactly that.

Blose extols her cat’s intelligence and emotion, painting her as almost human—or as Blose would insist, better than human. This is also a relatable mindset for me and other past or present pet owners. They are not mere accessories; they are our friends, our family, our confidantes. Honey shows as much personality in the story as any human character, and one senses that it’s true to life, that Blose isn’t just anthropomorphizing her for dramatic purposes.

Magnets and Ladders is an online magazine for writers with disabilities, and this story won first place in the nonfiction category of the National Federation of the Blind Writers’ Division’s 2020 contest, so the author’s disability is a constant subtext without ever being stated outright in the story. One gets the impression that Blose needed Honey as much as Honey needed her, that their relationship was symbiotic in a way. Many people are so preoccupied with finding romantic companionship to “complete” themselves that they overlook the potential of pets—but in this time when human connection is so limited, they may rediscover an appreciation for the one-of-a-kind bonds that animals can offer.

Take a few minutes, open your heart, and give this story a chance.

“Honey, I’m Home: Beyond the Rescue Door” by Bonnie Blose. Magnets and Ladders, Fall/Winter 2020-2021.

Reviewer bio: Christopher Nicholson is an English 1010 instructor and Creative Writing graduate student at Utah State University. He writes and blogs about all kinds of things at https://www.christopherrandallnicholson.com.

The Masters Review Announces Inaugural Chapbook Award Finalists & Winner

The Masters Review has announced the finalists and winner of their inaugural Chapbook Award judged by Steve Almond. The winning manuscript is Masterplans by Nick Almeida. His chapbook is set to be published in the fall.

Finalists were Deep Blue by Jay Allison and Oscillations by Tanya Perkins.

Don’t forget their Anthology Contest closes to entries on March 28 at midnight PST.

SRPR 2020 Editors’ Prize Winners

Opening the latest issue of Spoon River Poetry Review are the winners of the 2020 SRPR Editors’ Prize. The placing poems are introduced by the final judge, Austin Smith.

First Place
“Disbelieving These Deaths, I Go to Sit by Lake Huron” by David Groff

Runners-up
“Wonders of the World” by Todd Copeland
“Field Notes: To Excavate Beyond Despair” by Erica Sofer Bodwell

Honorable Mentions
“You can have it all” by Kelsey Taylor
“In the Exhaust of an Outboard  Motor, I Talk to Myself and to Grandpa” by Cody Smith
“Dear Crossed, Did You Know That You’re Not Your Body?” by Gabriel Dozal

Find a copy of this issue at SRPR‘s website.

2020 River Styx Microfiction Contest Winners

River Styx Issue 103/104 coverIssue 103/104 of River Styx just hit our mailbox, bringing the winners of the 2020 River Styx Microfiction Contest with it. The winners were selected by the literary magazine’s editors. These stories must be 500 words or less.

First Place
“The Great Migration of Whales” by Michelle Kim Hall

Second Place
“Weighted Vest” by Rachel Furey

Third Place
“His Exposure” by Matthew Pitt

Honorable Mentions
“Wild Thing” by Haley Creighton
“Maybe This One” by Robert McBrearty
“On Liminality” by Marc Sheehan

15th Mudfish Poetry Prize Winners

The 15th annual Mudfish Poetry Prize was judged by Erica Jong, author of The World Began With Yes (Red Hen Press, 2019).

The grand prize winner is Mark Schimmoeller from Frankfort, Kentucky with his poem “Benediction.”

First honorable mention is Cornelia Hoogland’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” and the second honorable mentions is James Trask’s “Springtime and Single Again.”

First place winner and the two honorable mentions will be featured in Mudfish 22 which will soon be available and don’t forget to stay tuned for news announcing the 16th annual Mudfish Poetry Prize deadline and guidelines.

Finalists:

Madeline Artenberg
Kew Gardens, New York

Adrian Blevins
Waterville, Maine

Paola Bruni
Aptos, California

Cornelia Hoogland
Hornby Island, Canada

Daniel Liebert
St. Louis, Missouri

Tim Louis Macaluso
Rochester, New York

Samuel Oguntoyinbo
Solon, Ohio

Mark Schimmoeller
Frankfort, Kentucky

Don Schofield
Thessaloniki, Greece

Deborah Schupack
Croton-on-Hudson, New York

James Trask
San Marcos, Texas

Laurie Zimmerman
Los Angeles, California

The Baltimore Review – 1,000 Words or Less Winners

The Winter 2021 issue of The Baltimore Review includes two contest winners among the rest of their contributors.

Contest Winner – 1,000 Words or Less – Fiction
“Intersection” by Basmah Sakrani

Contest Winner – 1,000 Words or Less – Creative Nonfiction
“The Reckoning” by Emily James

Take a little time out of your day to check out these winners.

Brobby’s Double Jeopardy

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

The Winter 2020 issue of The Malahat Review opens with the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke Prize for Creative Nonfiction: “On Playing Double Jeopardy!” by Christina Brobby. This piece works through the different money categories in a game of Jeopardy all on the theme of photographic terms. Like the show, Brobby is given the answer and she responds with the appropriate question as she connects the term to her life.

I enjoyed the set-up of this piece. It flows seamlessly, Brobby always taking care to weave the photographic terms into the moments of her life. She examines how she presents as her race, in her adoptive family, as a wife, a partner, a mother. When she gives the answer of “What is a filter?” she ends the section turning it back inward: “Be more or less vibrant, act more coolly, like when the man after your husband said you were too emotional and that’ s not what he was signing up for. You donned your neutral-density filter . . . ”

This piece is a great opener for the issue, and well-deserved of taking home the Constance Rooke Prize. It immediately caught my eye and drew me in with its unique format, something greatly appreciated in the these days of shortened attention spans.

Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize Winners

Issue 57 of Ruminate features the winners of the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize. Grab a copy now to check them out.

First Place
“The Difference Between a Year and a Lifetime” by Laura Budofsky Wisniewski

Second Place
“Papier-mâché” by Yvette Siegert

Honorable Mentions
“In Another Dream Where My Father Apologizes” by Hajjar Baban
“The Sparrow in the Banquet Hall” by Betsy Sholl

Finalists include Chaun Ballard, Jennifer Barber, Charley Gibney, Catherine Hodges, Suzanne Lummis, Megan Merchant, Brian Sneeden, Samuel Ugbechie, David Wright, and Haolun Xu.

The Iowa Review’s Veteran’s Writing Gallery

Literary magazine The Iowa Review, whose Fall 2020 issue was released last month after unexpected delays due to the pandemic, offers a web-home for veterans’ writing as well as resources for veteran writers with their Veteran’s Writing Gallery. In it they feature all work in its entirety by veteran writers who were published in the Spring 2013 and Spring 2015 issues.

Screenshot of The Iowa Review's Veteran's Writing Gallery

They also offer a biennial writing contest for veterans, the Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans. The winners and runner-ups of the 2020 contest will be published in the Spring 2021 issue. First place was James Janko’s “Fallujah in a Mirror”; second place was Jerri Bell’s “He Said, She Said”; and runners-up were Erik Cederblom, Ashley Hand, and Brian Kerg. Their next contest is slated for a May 2022 deadline.

If you are a veteran writer, do check out their resources page which offers a guide to publishing venues, workshops and classes, and writing contests devoted to veterans and active-duty military and reservists.

2020 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize Winners

The Winter 2020 issue of The Georgia Review features the winner and three finalists of the 2020 Loraine Williams Prize.

Winner
“Transcript of My Mother’s Sleeptalk: Chincoteague” by Hannah Perrin King

Finalists
“far past the beginning and quite close to the end” by Bernard Ferguson
“Father’s Day: Looking West” by David Landon
“Surrounded by Peach Trees, President Clinton Speaks to My Fourth Grade Class” by Juan Luis Guzmán

The winning poem was selected by Ilya Kaminsky, and all three poems can also be found online.

“The German Woman” by Josie Sigler Sibara

“She was generous to him in every way a woman could be. Hands large and fast, but tender. Flanked like a draft horse. Breasts heavy as the cheesecloth sacks hanging over her kitchen sink, dripping whey. She had managed to keep a single goat alive in the cellar of that house, every last of its windows smashed out. She brought Richard curds so fresh they squeaked against his teeth as she scooped them into his eager mouth on a crust of bread. How was this possible when anything left breathing in her country had been killed by his own comrades?”

So begins “The German Woman” by Josie Sigler Sibara, winner of the 2020 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction and selected by Lori Ostlund. Readers can find this short story in the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of Colorado Review.

This year’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction is currently taking submissions until March 14, 2021.

Memoir Magazine Announces Winners for Inaugural Memoir Prize for Books

Memoir Prize for BooksMemoir Magazine annually holds the Memoir Prize which awards Memoir and Creative Nonfiction book-length works of exceptional merit in three categories: traditionally published, self-published, and unpublished. The awards include a cash prize, a feature in Memoir Magazine, and a year’s worth of free advertising. This is the only prize of its kind solely focusing on memoir. The 2021 prize deadline will be announced in January.

The grand prize winner of the inaugural Memoir Prize for Books is Relief by Execution: A Visit to Mauthausen by Gint Aras.

The finalists and category winners were:

  • Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg
  • Wild Blueberries: Nuns, Rabbits & Discovery in Rural Michigan by Peter Damm
  • Dreams and Nightmares: I Fled Alone to the United States When I Was Fourteen by Liliana Velasquez

You can view the full list of honorable mentions at Memoir Magazine‘s website.

2021 Raleigh Review Flash Fiction Prize Winners

Raleigh Review has announced the winners of their 2021 Flash Fiction Prize. Congrats to the winner, honorable mention, and finalists.

Winner 
“Monument” by Amina Gautier

Honorable Mention 
“1985” by Katherine Hubbard

Finalists
“Hansel and Gretel on Trial” by Amina Gautier
“You Two” by Alana Reynolds

You can look forward to reading these pieces in the forthcoming Spring 2021 issue of Raleigh Review. Enter your own work to the 2022 prize opening in July 2021.

Hippocampus 2020 Contest Winner Announced

Hippocampus, the online literary magazine devoted to memorable creative nonfiction, has announced the winner of its 2020 Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction.

photographs of 2020 Remember in November contest winners

Claire O’Brien’s essay “Dead Weight” was selected by guest judge Janna Marlies Maron as the grand prize winner.

The runner-up an finalists are:

  • “The New Pretty” by Nicole Graev Lipson (runner-up)
  • “Exodus” by Darby Shea Williams
  • “The Honey Bucket” by Laura Joyce-Hubbard
  • “I’ll Be Seeing You: A Black Women Travels in 2017” by DW McKinney
  • Say You Want to Live and Be Beautiful” by Lori Jakiela

You can read the winning piece, runner-up, and finalists in the November 2020 issue online now.

2020 Frontier Industry Prize Winners

The 2020 Frontier Industry Prize winners have been announced.

Winner
“The Long Afterlife” by Michelle Phương Ting
To be published on December 2, 2020

2nd Place
“while i walk, my brother assures my nephew there are wildflowers growing in minneapolis” by Chaun Ballard
To be published on November 25, 2020

3rd Place
“Bad Dream With My Grandmother’s Stroke” by Adedayo Agarau
To be published on November 18, 2020

Michelle Phương Ting’s piece was selected by Daniel Slager, Peter LaBerge, and Carmen Giménez Smith, and she took home a $3000 prize.

Visit Frontier Poetry‘s website for author bios, as well as a list of finalists and poets on the longlist.

2020 Coniston Prize Winner & Finalists Announced

Laura Villareal is the winner of Radar Poetry‘s 2020 Coniston Prize. Her suite of poems will appear in Issue 28. Judge Ada Limón said of Villareal’s poems, “With language that is alive and piercing with rich sound work and haunting images, these poems are both confident and aching.”

Finalists of this year’s prize were Hillary Berg, Mary Craig, Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick, Jessica Hincapie, Amy Miller, Meredith Stricker, and Sarah Wolfson. You can read their poems in Issue 28 as well.

Driftwood Press Adrift Contest Winners

Earlier this week, Driftwood Press announced the winners of their third annual Adrift Chapbook Contest.

Winner
Lily-livered by Wren Hanks

Runner-up
Dead Uncles by Ben Kline

Guest Judge Sandra Beasley chose each of these chapbooks which will be available in 2021.

In fiction, T. Geronimo Johnson selected “Myopic” by Mason Boyles as this year’s Adrift Contest winner. This story will appear in the January 2021 issue of Driftwood Press.

If you’re disappointed you missed your chance to submit this year, no worries! The Driftwood Press Poem Contest and the Driftwood Press Short Story Contest are both currently open for submissions until January 15.

Janelle Monáe Plus Irenosen Okojie Times Grace Jones

Guest Post by Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

Should I say shame on me for not knowing about Grace Jones till this “Lockdown Year” when I read a February 3, 2020 article on The Cut where Janelle Monáe’s definition of Afrofuture was put forward by herself as: “It looks like an orgasm and the big bang happening while skydiving as Grace Jones smiles.”? The article was written by no other than the inimitable Roxane Gay. I remember rushing to do my homework on who Grace Jones is, and what her smile looked like.

I wouldn’t tell you that I enjoyed the task, but I wouldn’t also say it wasn’t worth the stress; maybe this was better reflected when Irenosen Okojie won the Caine Prize for African Writing, an award described by many as the African Booker. Her story was titled “Grace Jones” and she was announced the winner of the prize on July 27, 2020, almost six months after I first stumbled on the “original” Grace Jones. Irenosen Okojie’s winning story is about a Grace Jones impersonator who mourns the death of her family in a house fire.

Frankly speaking, the story is hugely experimental and may not appeal to readers of literary fiction. The story itself is as strange as a rainbow in the night sky can be. Here is a writer who isn’t scared to take risks, and for which the judges praised her thus: “risky, dazzling, imaginative and bold.” It is a story steeped in dark experimentation and yet offers a chance for entertainment. It is also worthy of note to know that the Nigerian-British author says the £10,000 award for African writing has given her confidence as a black and female experimental writer. This, to me, is a huge personal win; a win too for African speculative fiction.

Reviewer bio: Marvel Chukwudi Pephel is a prolific Nigerian writer who writes poems, short stories and other things besides.

2020 Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers Winners

The sixteenth annual Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers winners are featured in the September/October 2020 issue of the Kenyon Review.

Winner
“Cutglass” by Manasi Garg

Runners-up
“(B)lack” by Eric Gottlieb
“Meat” by Annie Cao

Molly McCully Brown introduces the section with some words about the three placing entries, giving readers a preview of what to expect in the next several pages of the issue. Grab a copy to check them out.

 

The Malahat Review Novella Prize – 2020 Winner

The Malahat Review hosts a Novella Prize biennially. The 2020 winner opens the Summer 2020 issue. Judges Samantha Jade Macpherson and Naben Ruthnum selected “Yentas” by Rebecca Păpucaru.

Of “Yentas,” the judges said: “‘Yentas’ is a nostalgia-free portrait of girlhood lived among the Jewish communities of 1980s Montreal. The novella’s evocation of the cruelties and kindnesses of teenage friendship, territorialism, and enmity is built in prose as funny as it is precise. Rebecca Păpucaru’s treatment of culture, ethnicity, and religion as complex structures informing protagonist Karen’s family and social life achieves impressive depth and nuance. Through Karen’s eyes we are totally immersed in a rich and bubbling teenaged world. Visceral and enchanting, a truly fantastic read!”

At The Malahat Review‘s website, readers can check out an interview with the winning author.

The Adroit Journal – Adroit Prize Winners

There is plenty for readers to check out in Issue 34 of The Adroit Journal, including the results of the Adroit Prizes.

Poetry Winner
“On Their Birthday, Suge Knight & My Daddy Discuss Forgiveness” by Tariq Thompson

Poetry Runner-Up
“Cha” by Stephanie Chang

Prose Winner
“Valley of Saints” by Yasmeen Khan

Prose Runner-Up
“A Dominicana’s Guide to Surviving a PWI” by Coral Bello-Martinez

In addition to these winners, you can also find a selection of high school and college students who placed as finalists.

Baltimore Review Summer 2020 Contest Winners

Have you visited the latest issue of Baltimore Review yet? In the Summer 2020 issue, readers can find the latest contest winners.

Flash Fiction
“Telephone” by Cara Lynn Albert

Flash Creative Nonfiction
“Kept Miniature in Size” by Ellie Roscher

Prose Poetry
“Absence Archive” by Anita Olivia Koester

Check out the full new issue, or spend some time just taking in the contest winners. Either way is a great way to spend some of your Sunday.

Eastern Michigan University Alumni wins the Sawtooth Prize

Eastern Michigan University Graduate Program in Creative Writing websiteThe creative writing program at Eastern Michigan University is distinguished as one of the only interdisciplinary programs for creative writing in the country. They provide a rich space for exploring relationships between poetry and poetics, experimental prose, cultural translation, community service, pedagogy and contemporary arts. Their goal is to nourish the development of rigorous and imaginatively engaged writing.

Rosie Stockton, who graduated from their MA program in 2017 is currently pursuing their PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles. Rosie has become the recent winner of the Sawtooth Prize. Their book Permanent Volta will be published soon by Nightboat Books.

Christina-Marie Sears, current blog writer/admin staffer for EMU’s online journal BathHouse sat down with Stockton to discuss their work, current practice, and time at Eastern Michigan University.

One of my daily rituals is- I get up and I journal. It’s not narrative. Journaling for me is a stream-of -consciousness and image-focused practice. I have a really active dream life and I just wake up and write before I even look at my phone, but of course on some days that doesn’t always work.

Check out the full interview here.

14th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards Winners Announced

A leader and veteran of publishing award contests, The National Indie Excellence® Awards are open to recent English language books in print from self and independent publishers. These awards are judged by experts from various book industry professions including publishers, writers, editors, and designers. Winners and finalists are determined by the basis of superior written matter coupled with excellent presentation.

Screenshot of the 14th annual National Indie Excellence AwardsThey have recently announced the finalists and winners from their 14th annual contest. Winners include Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy edited by Nicole Seitz and Jonathan Haupt (University of Georgia Press); Boy on the Bridge: The Story of John Shalikashvili’s American Success by Andrew Marble (University Press of Kentucky); The Big Book of Chakras and Chakra Healing: How to Unlock Your Seven Energy Centers for Healing, Happiness, and Transformation by Susan Shumsky (Weiser); Trove: A Woman’s Search for Truth and Buried Treasure by Sandra A. Miller (Brown Paper Press); Great River City: How The Mississippi Shaped St. Louis by Andrew Wanko (Missouri Historical Society Press); and Fabulous Beast: Poems by Sarah Kain Gutowski (Texas Review Press).

Check out the full list of winners here.

The Florida Review 2019 Editors’ Awards Winners & Finalists

The latest issue of The Florida Review includes the writers who placed in the 2019 Editors’ Awards. There are plenty to sink your teeth into.

Nonfiction
“Skin the Bunny” by Kirk Wilson
“To Trace the Sky” by Cherie Nelson

Poetry
“Father-Son & Holy” by Aurielle Marie
“Bridal Suite” by Joanne Dominique Dwyer
“Culture Shock” & “The Cycle” by Lani Yu

Fiction
“In Loco Parentis” by Eleanor Bluestein
“Americana” by Jennifer Buentello
“All the Guessing Gets Us” by George Looney

Chapbook
“Bedweather” by Angelo R. Lacuesta & Roy Allen Martinez
from “My father is housed inside a whale” by My Tran

There’s even more to check out within this issue, so be sure to grab a copy for yourself.

2020 Dogwood Literary Award Winners

The Spring 2020 issue of Dogwood features the 2020 Dogwood Literary Award Winners in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Nonfiction
“The Ritual of Smoking” by Rhonda Zimlich

Poetry
“Dear You” by Fay Dillof

Fiction
“Arbor Day” by Rebecca Timson

This year’s contest judges were Daisy Hernández (nonfiction), Ellen Doré Watson (poetry), and Ladee Hubbard (fiction). Visit Dogwood’s website for a celebration of each of the winners with words from the judges and bios for the winning writers.

2019 Carve Prose & Poetry Contest Winners

Carve annually hosts the Prose & Poetry Contest for submissions in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. There is one winner in each genre category, each awarded a $1000 prize.

Readers can find the winners of the 2019 contest in the Spring 2020 issue.

Fiction
“A Simple Case” by Nancy Lundmerer

Nonfiction
“From the Book on Pit Firing Pottery” by Sarah Sousa

Poetry
“Cleft” by Jason M. Glover

The judges for this past year’s contest were Lydia Kiesling in fiction, Analicia Sotelo in nonfiction, and Benjamin Busch in poetry. Submissions for this year’s contest will reopen at the beginning of October.

2019 Able Muse Write Prize Winners

Able Muse‘s annual Write Prize awards $500 for the best submitted poem, $500 for the best submitted flash fiction, and publication in the print journal. The Winter 2019 issue of Able Muse features the winners of the 2019 contest.

Poetry Winner
“Waiting for the Angel” by David MacRae Landon

Poetry Finalists
“Dear Sonnet” by Amy Bagan
“Paradox” by Beth Paulson
“Postcard, Vermont” by Miriam O’Neal

Fiction Winner
“To the Bottleneck Fiction” by Erin Russell

Stay tuned for the winners of the 2020 contest, which closed this past March.

Inaugural Nina Riggs Poetry Award Winner

author head shotRhett Iseman Trull, Editor of Cave Wall poetry magazine has announced the first winner for The Nina Riggs Poetry Award.

“We were thrilled with the many nominations that came in from individuals, presses, and journals,” Rhett commented. “The 10 finalists that went to the guest judge were powerful poems, all worthy of the award, poems everyone should read.”

Guest Judge Maria Hummel chose Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ poem “Good Mother,” which first appeared in Tin House, as this year’s inaugural winner. Griffiths’ poem can be read here.

The Nina Riggs Poetry Award is a crowd-funded award, with the winner receiving at least $500. “Thanks to the generous donations of so many supporters,” Rhett shared, “we were able to award Rachel Eliza $1,000.”

Honorable Mention went to Melissa Crowe for “Dear Terror, Dear Splendor.”

Finalists

Traci Brimhall, “Oh, Wonder”
Tiana Clark, “A Louder Thing”
Carrie Fountain, “Will You?”
Keetje Kuipers, “Still Life with Small Objects of Perfect Choking Size”
Megan Peak, “What I Don’t Tell My Mother about Ohio”
Thomas Reiter, “Companions”
Anna Ross, “One Time”
Molly Spencer, “A Wooing, Outright, of My Beloved Ones”

Rhett added, “We hope many people will nominate poems for the next round. Any poems received before Nov. 1 will be considered for the 2021 award. We are looking for the finest poems on family, relationships, or domestic life published in the last three years. No self-nominations.”

For more information, visit: http://www.cavewallpress.com/ninaaward.html

2020 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize Winner and Finalists

The latest issue of december includes the 2020 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize winner and finalists.

First Place
“River” by Kimani Rose

Honorable Mention
“The Mirrored Room” by Carolyn Foster Segal

Finalists
“The Chosen” by Partridge Boswell
“An Invitation to an Eclipse Party” by
“Going to Church” by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
“Ars Poetica With Clickbait” by Rebecca Foust
“Pink Peonies” by Valentina Gnup
“On Midwest Marriage” by Gina Keplinger
“My Daughter Makes Pan Dulces” by Abby E. Murray
“Origin of a Disaster” by Purnama
“House Bill #118” by Molly Bess Rector
“Rupture” by Raisa Tolchinsky

You can view a selection of these at the magazine’s website, or grab yourself a copy to check out all the placing poems.

2020 Lamar York Prize Winners

Pick up the Spring 2020 issue of The Chattahoochee Review for the winners of the Lamar York Prizes.

Fiction
“With Mercy to the Stars” by Lisa Nikolidakis

Nonfiction
“Catharsis, Diagnosis” by Rachel Toliver

The nonfiction winner was selected by judge Alice Bolin, who says the essay, “begins as straightforward memoir and blooms into something stranger and more wonderful: a treatise on the obsessive-compulsive act of storytelling, analysis of classic graphic novel, a meditation on how comics tell stories, and on how our lives, with their nonsensical, sometimes brutal vignettes resemble comics.”

Fiction judge Anthony Varallo writes that he was “drawn in from the first page, happy to be in the company of a young narrator who is just starting to glimpse the limitations of the adulthood that awaits her, as confining as the cage that houses her father’s prized bear.”

Be sure to check out these pieces for yourself in The Chattahoochee Review.

Kari Gunter-Seymour Talks Trigger Warnings

Sheila-Na-Gig online - Spring 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The Spring 2020 issue of Sheila-Na-Gig online features the winner and honorable mentions of the Spring Poetry Contest. Winner Kari Gunter-Seymour pens the poignant “Trigger Warning.”

In this piece, the speaker’s son grapples with PTSD which worsens in November, the result of time in the military. The speaker’s ability to relate is limited; the closest thing she has is watching her father die, and holding dogs as they’ve died. Throughout the poem she mourns not only her father, but also “the farm boy, the quipster, / the Ren & Stimpy impersonator” who her son used to be before he “boarded the plane, now camouflaged / in anxiety meds and a skeletal body.” I really liked the use of “camouflage” here, an image that not only describes the concealing the person he was, but one that also conjures up military uniforms he once donned.

Gunter-Seymour sums up the message of the poem in two truthful lines, “We don’t get to choose our memories, / they are triggered.”

Carve Spring 2020 Preorder Week

Carve Magazine screenshotThat’s right! This week is the week you can preorder Carve Magazine‘s Spring 2020 issue. From now until April 12, you can reserve your copy of the special print edition and receive automatic free shipping to anywhere on print preorders. You also get 15% off a 1-year print or digital subscription. Need more reasons to preorder this issue? It features four new stories, five new poets, two essays and the winners of the 2019 Prose & Poetry Contest selected by Lydia Kiesling, Analicia Sotelo, and Benjamin Busch.

2020 VanderMey Nonfiction Prize Winners

Ruminate - Spring 2020The latest issue of Ruminate features the writers who placed in the 2020 VanderMey Nonfiction Prize.

First Place
“Destiny of Cumin” by Jasmine V. Bailey

Second Place
“A True Prayer is One That You Do Not Understand” by Kelly J. Beard

Honorable Mention
“How To Ruin a Persian Wedding” by Atash Yaghmaian

Finalists include Avra Aron, Kaimana Farris, Dorothy Neagle, Alexandra Loeb, Sally Pearson, Arielle Schussler, Jamie Smith, Shannon Tsonis, and Shannon Yarbrough.

Selections were made by Ruminate’s founder, Brianna Van Dyke and says of her first-place selection: “Jasmine V. Bailey’s ‘Destiny of Cumin’ offers a wide-searching exploration of food and slavery and motherhood and becomes an essay about power and love and what it means to live among the contradictions of our own hearts.”

24th Annual Poet Hunt Winners

MacGuffin - Winter 2020The winners of the 24th Annual Poet Hunt can be found in the Winter 2020 issue of The MacGuffin. Judge Richard Tillinghast introduces his selections and gives some insight about the winner and the two runners-up in the issue.

Winner
“The Sketchbooks of Hiroshige” by Jane Craven

Honorable Mentions
“Sonnet from the German Front, 1944” by Jill Reid
“Aergia in the Overworld” by John Blair

The 2020 contest opened for submissions today and will run until June 15. Winners receive publication and a $500 grand prize. Visit The MacGuffin’s website to learn more.

That’s Some (Weird) Pig!

Weird Pig Robert Long ForemanSoutheast Missouri State University Press may have their orders closed at the moment, but you can still learn about their forthcoming titles. In October 2020, they’ll publish Weird Pig by Robert Long Foreman, winner of the 2018 Nilsen Prize for a First Novel.

Although it’s his first novel, Foreman has made his mark by winning Pleiades Press’s Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prize with his collection of essays Among Other Things and by winning a Pushcart Prize for fiction.

Find out more about the 2018 competition at SEMO Press’s website. And if you’re interested at trying your own luck at entering the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel, you have plenty of time—submissions close in November.

Witness the Witness Literary Award Winners

Witness - Spring 2020The Spring 2020 issue of Witness features the winners of their latest Witness Literary Awards.

Poetry Winner:
“Future Ruins” by Andrew Collard

Poetry Runner-up:
“You Will See It Coming & You Won’t Run” by Emmy Newman

Fiction Winner:
“Delivery” by Emily Greenberg

Poetry Runner-up:
“The Dramatic Haircut” by Kristina Ten

Nonfiction Winner:
“When a Child Offends” by Michele Sharpe

Nonfiction Runner-up:
“Ani-la and Anne-la: On Everything I Knew and Didn’t Know” by Anne Liu Kellor

Poetry was selected by Heather Lang-Cassera, fiction was selected by Kristen Arnett, and nonfiction was selected by José Roach-Orduña. The rest of the issue is “magic” themed, so grab a copy and discover the magic inside.

2019 Blood Orange Review Literary Contest Winners

Online literary magazine Blood Orange Review hosts an annual literary contest. The winners for the 2019 contest were Benjamin Bartu for his poem “Do You Love Her”; Austin Maas for his nonfiction piece “Trigger Finger”; and Joel Streicker for his story “For the Bounty Provided Us.” Read these and more in their latest issue.

Submissions are currently open through April 30 for the 2020 contest.

AQR – Carrying the Fire: Celebrating Indigenous Voices of Canada

Alaska Quarterly Review - Winter/Spring 2020The Winter/Spring 2020 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review ends with a special feature—”Carrying the Fire: Celebrating Indigenous Voices of Canada.” This literary anthology is co-edited by Sophie McCall, Deanna Reder, Sarah Henzi, Sam McKegney, and Warren Cariou, who are interviewed as an introduction to their selections.

The selected winners and finalists of the Indigenous Voices Awards featured in this issue are: Mika Lafond, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Elaine McArthur, Treena Chambers, Joshua Whitehead, Nazbah Tom, Amanda Peters, Marie-Andrée Gill, Smokii Sumac, Tenille K. Campbell, Francine Merasty, J.D. Kurtness, Naomi Fontaine, Aviaq Johnston, Brandi Bird, David Agecoutay, Dawawn Dumont, and Carleigh Baker. Their work includes both poetry and prose.

Grab a copy of the latest issue of AQR to listen to the varied indigenous voices of Canada.

2019 Kenyon Review Short Nonfiction Contest Winners

Kenyon Review - March/April 2020The January/February 2020 issue of The Kenyon Review featured the winners of their 2019 Short Fiction Contest, and now the March/April 2020 issue features the winners of the 2019 Kenyon Review Short Nonfiction Contest.

Winner
“Hello, Fridge” by Anna Hartford

Runners-Up
“Saving Luna” by KT Sparks
“The Great Glass Closet” by Benjamin Garcia

Check out the introduction to these selections, written by Nonfiction Editor Geeta Kothari, who shares her thoughts on each piece.