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River Styx 2014 International Poetry Contest Winners

Issue 93 of River Styx features the winners of their 2014 International Poetry Contest. Their editorial panel selected a number of poems to send to this year’s final judge, poet Joan Murray [pictured], who selected the winners:

joan-murray1st Place
Adam Scheffler, “Contemporaries”
Murray’s comment: “It’s a very accomplished accretive poem that pays off our anticipation with specifics and surprises, and lets us chuckle right through the inevitable.”

2nd Place
Brian Patrick Heston, “Overtime”
Murray’s commen: “It’s a jewel-like yet gritty poem that lifts a dark moment to the light and pulls us inside with curiosity, reluctance, and empathy.”

3rd Place
Suzanne Cleary, “Making Love While Watching a Documentary on Lewis and Clark”
Murray’s commen: “It’s an appealingly drowsy meditation on expectation, imagination, and disappointment—in history, on TV, and in bed.”

Honorable Mention
Myra Shapiro, “Put the Kettle On”

Southwest Review 100th Anniversary

southwest-reviewEstablished in 1915, frist as The Texas Review at the University ot Texas at Austin, Southwest Review, now of Southern Methodist University, celebrates 100 years of publishing. As critic Edmund Grosse said in the inagural issue of the publication, the magazine has proven his prediction that it would “uphold the banner of scholarly elegance” and “stoop to no word unworthy of the Muses.”

Under the editorial guidance of Willard Spiegelman since 1984 (when the editorial responsibility was returned to a faculty member for the first time in forty years), Southwest Review has emerged as “one of the best literary quarterlies in the United Sates,” according to PEN American Center. Having won the PEN Nora Magid Award for Literary Editing in 2005, Spiegelman and his editorial staff have shown a true lifetime commitment to publishing “luminous and unfamiliar names, so long as the writing is genuine.”

Also featured in this anniversary issue are the 2014 Morton Marr Poetry Prize Winners. This year’s judge was Elizabeth Spires.

First Place Kyle Norwood “Landscape with Fountain and Language”
Second Place Lisa Rosenberg “To the Makers”
Second Place David Landon “Ash Wednesday: Coffee At Starbucks”

Books :: Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize

neighbors-jay-nebelThe Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize is awarded to one poetry author a year, with a $2,000 prize and publication. 2014’s prize winner is Jay Nebel whose work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Narrative, Ploughshares, and Tin House, among other journals.

Neighbors, his winning collection, is a book of lyric narratives about the men and women who live and work next to us the people standing in line at the DMV or buying milk and bread at the grocery store. Jay Nebel gives voice to an America lost in the graffiti of park benches and 24-hour diner parking lots, where men attempt CPR on gorillas and beat each other in back alleys with baseball bats, as well as revere their mothers. These are poems that look through the windows at the secret lives of our neighbors, their affairs and addictions, their curses and loves.

Published by Saturnalia Books this month, Neighbors can be purchased through the University Press of New England website.

Bellevue Literary Review 2015 Prize Winners

The spring issue of Bellevue Literary Review features the winners of the 2015 BLR prizes:

bellevue-literary-reviewThe winner of the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, “Autobiography” by Carla Hartenberger—chosen by judge Chang-rae Lee—follows a set of Canadian conjoined twins who must wrestle with the physiology and psychology that both keep them together and wrench them apart.

The winner of the Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, “I Must Have Been That Man” by Adina Talve-Goodman, was selected by judge Anne Fadiman. In her winning essay, Talve-Goodman navigates college-age independence, her recent heart transplant, and the challenges of compassion when she comes upon a man lying on the side of the road on a rain-drenched night.

The winner of the Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry—”Dysesthesia” by Hannah Baggott, selected by judge Major Jackson—is a vivid look at the sensory mayhem of dysesthesia: “I want to know why I am always wanting,” Baggott writes, “why my body is never quiet…”

The winner of the inaugural Daniel Liebowitz Prize for Student Writing is Philip Cawkwell’s haunting poem “The Dinosaur Exhibit.” This award recognizes one outstanding literary submission from the Medicine Clerkship at the NYU School of Medicine.

Honorable mentions (also published in the issue):
Fiction: “Bystander” by Jen Bergmark
Nonfiction: “Torso” by Leslie Absher
Poetry: “Damaged” by Colby Cedar Smith

Michigan Quarterly Review Prize Winners Announced

courtney-sender2kwonmorgenstern-clarren

Courtney Sender has won the $1000 Lawrence Foundation Prize for 2014. The prize is awarded annually by the Editorial Board of MQR to the author of the best short story published that year in the journal. Sender’s story “We Can Practice Starts” appeared in the Spring 2014 issue.

Haesong Kwon has won the 2014 Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize, which is awarded annually to the author of the best poem or group of poems appearing that year in the Michigan Quarterly Review. His poem “Epistle,” appeared in the Fall 2014 issue.

Rachel Morgenstern-Clarren has won the 2014 Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets, which is awarded annually to the best poet appearing in MQR who has not yet published a book. The award, which is determined by the MQR editors, is in the amount of $500.

For more information about the prizes and judges comments, click on the individual prize links above.

Buffalo Almanack Inkslinger Award

buffalo-almanackBuffalo Almanack online quarterly of fiction, visual arts, and literary criticism has established the Inkslinger Award for Creative Excellence. The award is made to the best short story and art piece in each issue as selected by the editors. There are no entry fees – all submissions to Buffalo Almanack are considered. Winners currently receive $50 and publication. With the most recent issue of Buffalo Almanack, the editors have added the feature of Woodshop Talk in which the Inkslinger winners are interviewed about their published artwork and stories.

The March 2015 Inkslinger Award winners are Michael Deagler for his story “Fishtown, Down,” and photography by Justin Hamm. Previous winners can be found here with links to their winning works.

Buffalo Almanack has announced they are open for submissions for their first themed issue: “Where Thou Art.” The editors are expanding submissions to include creative non-fiction in addition to short stories and visual art. “Everybody on the planet is eligible,” say the editors, “no entry cost is required, and you have plenty of time to prepare – subs will remain open from March to November of 2015.” Specific guidelines can be found on the Buffalo Almanack website as well as in the newest issue (pages 61-62).

Books :: BOA Short Fiction Prize Winner

reptile-house-robin-mcleanRobin McLean’s first short story collection, Reptile House, will be published May, 2015 by BOA Editions, Ltd. A finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Short Story Prize in 2011 and 2012, Reptile House is the winner of the BOA Short Fiction Prize.

The fascinating characters in these nine short stories abandon families, plot assassinations, nurse vendettas, tease, taunt, and terrorize. They retaliate for bad marriages, derail their lives with desires and delusions, and wait decades for lovers. How far will we go to escape to a better dream? What consequences must we face for hope and fantasy? Probing the dark underbelly of human nature and want, Robin McClean’s stories are strange, often disturbing and funny, and as full of foolishness and ugliness as they are of the wisdom and beauty around us.

Living in Alaskan woods for 15 years as a potter and lawyer, McLean, in an interview with BOA, reveals how Alaska has affected her writing, “Alaska is wild, dangerous, beauitiful, and makes you feel tiny. Living there made me want to write with wild dangerous beauty, to be small, and also big . . . . Alaska made me think about scale, grandeur, and audacity.”

More information on Reptile House can be found on the publisher’s website.

Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Award Winners :: March 2015

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their Very Short Fiction Award. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count under 3000. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in July. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Christa-RomanoskyFirst place: Christa Romanosky [pictured], of Pittsburgh, PA, wins $1500 for “Every Shape That the Moon Makes.” Her story will be published in Issue 96 of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Adam Soto, native Chicagoan now living in Austin, TX, wins $500 for “The Box.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Katy E. Ellis, of Seattle, WA, wins $300 for “Night Watch.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline coming up! Family Matters: April 30. Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place receives $1500 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers for stories about families of all configurations. Most submissions to this category run 1200-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Books :: A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize Winner

shame-shame-devin-beckerDevin Becker’s debut collection Shame | Shame investigates two types of shame: that which disgraces, and that which curbs and keeps. Set in the mundane everyday where lives maneuver around other lives, conversations are clumsy, and a co-worker is the only one without a party invite, these confessional narrative poems humorously dramatize the socially awkward moments of life.

Shame | Shame is the 2014 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize winner, selected by David St. John, who also provides a foreword for the collection, stating “We all want to know what happened to Huck after he decided to ‘light out for the Territory’—my own sense is that 150 years later, a little sadder and a whole lot wiser, he emerged as Devin Becker.”

Published by BOA Editions, Ltd., Shame | Shame will be released this April.

Books :: Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize Winner

belle-mar-katie-bickhamThe poems in The Belle Mar by Katie Bickham are set on a Louisiana plantation from 1811 through 2005, and speak through the imagined voices of slaves, masters, mistresses, servants, and children. Focused on events that take place in a single room within the plantation home, Belle Mar, Bickham offers an unflinching portrayal of the atrocities that form an undeniable part of Lousiana’s history. The fully rounded characters she evokes allow readers to contemplate the social forces that shaped a slave-holding society and perpetuated injustices long after abolition.

Katie Bickham has also received the Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize from The Missouri Review. Her work can be found in Pleiades and Prairie Schooner. Winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize, chosen by Alicia Ostriker, The Belle Mar will be released by Pleiades Press on April 14, 2015.

The Southeast Review Contest Winners

The Southeast Review 33.1 is jam-packed with winning writing from the publication’s 2014 contests:

southeast-reviewWorld’s Best Short-Short Story Contest
Judged by Robert Olen Butler

Winner
Megan Kirby, “Knead”

Finalists
Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, “An Ocean”
Mira Dougherty-Johnson, “All Fairy Tales Are Actual”
Laurel Ferejohn, “Bear”
Kristin LaCroix, “Big Tipper”
Michaella Thornton, “Donna”

SER Poetry Contest
Judged by Barbara Hamby

Winner
Catherine Moore, “Love Poem, Revisited”

Finalists
Annie Christain, “LAPD”
Jessica Durham, “Remember Body”
Shawn Fawson, “Love After Death”
Gabriel Leal, “King Mexican”
Andrea Witzke Slot, “Ring Out Wild Bells”

SER Narrative Nonfiction Contest
Judged by Mark Winegardner

Winner
Kate Angus, “My Catalog of Failures”

Finalists
Lisbeth Davidow, “Me and Jerry”
Kerstin Lieff, “A Boy Named Klaus”

Submissions are now being accepted for the 2015 SER contests, with Judges Robert Olen Butler (fiction), David Kirby (poetry), Bob Shacochis (nonfiction).

Books :: Black River Chapbook Competition Winner

taxonomy-of-the-space-between-us-caleb-curtissBlack Lawrence Press runs their Black River Chapbook Competition biannually (submissions opening again this spring), seeking an unpublished poetry or short fiction chapbook. Winners receive publication, $500, and ten copies of their perfect-bound book.

Fall 2013’s winning title A Taxonomy of the Space Between Us by Caleb Curtiss was published this past February.

“A Taxonomy of the Space Between Us is an elegant chronicle of grief, of the sprawling bonds between brothers and sisters, of bodies in this world, of the power of language when so artfully arranged. Caleb Curtiss is a poet among poets and in this beautiful and assured collection, he makes himself heard and how.” —Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State & Bad Feminist

Curtiss’s work can also be found in The Literary Review, New England Review, PANK, Hayden’s Ferry Review, DIAGRAM, Passages North, Spork, and TriQuarterly, and in New Poetry From The Midwest, published by New American Press.

Pacifica Literary Review Poetry Contest Winners

PacificaPacifica Literary Review #5 includes the winning poems from their “first ever” Poetry Contest, judged by Linda Birds.

First Place
Radha Marcum, “Fission: 1938 (Duet for Otto Frisch and Lisa Meitner)”

Second Place
Caitlin Scarano, “After the Tour”

Honorable Mentions
Radha Marcum, “Dear Tel Aviv”
Kim Kent, “How To Kill A Dove As Taught To Me By A Man In This Bar”
Vanessa Gabb, “Summer”

Books :: New Measure Poetry Prize Winner

no-shape-bends-the-river-so-long-monica-berlin-beth-marzoniFree Verse Editions, the poetry series of Parlor Press, hosts The New Measure Poetry Prize each year, awarding a prize of $1,000 and publication to an author of an original, unpublished manuscript of poems. Chosen by Carolyn Forché as the 2013 winner, No Shape Bends the River So Long by Monica Berlin and Beth Marzoni was published this past December.

“[. . .] together they navigate with beauty and resonance the ‘hours of drought, of waiting, the new low- / watermarks of the lakes,’ the trees ‘that sound like rain & morning.’ This is ecopoetry, it is intimate conversation, it is meditation, the turning inward, the swinging back out from mind to world around the bend.” –Nancy Eimers

Check out Free Verse’s website to learn more about No Shape Bends the River So Long.

Prism Review 2015 Contest Winners

The Prism Review has announced the winning entries for their annual short story and poetry prizes.

matthew-di-paoliFiction judge Sean Bernard selected Matthew Di Paoli [pictured] of New York, NY, who wins $250 for “Sweeping Glass.” His stories have appeared in multiple journals, and he currently teaches at Monroe College.

Poetry judge Jen Hofer selected JLSchneider of Ellenville, NY, who wins $250 for “Your Place, Now.” His poems have also appeared in numerous journals, and he is a carpenter and adjunct professor in upstate New York.

Both pieces will be published in Issue 17 of Prism Review, which is still accepting and considering submissions for its forthcoming issue. Past authors in Prism Review include Brandom Som, Elizabeth Robinson, Jessica Hollander, and many more (and Prism pays all contributing authors).

The Prism Review fiction and poetry prize for 2016 will begin accepting submissions in August 2015.

Introducing Write the World

write-the-worldWrite the World is a new start-up writing site focused on high school writers. Founded by a group formed out of Harvard’s graduate school of Ed, Write the World is an online platform for students to publish their work, engage with peers around the world, provide and receive feedback. The site also features a great set of tools for teachers to enhance writing instruction in the classroom.

Write the World seeks participants for a variety of community roles: Student Consultants; Teacher Advisory Board Members; and from time to time Write the World recruits teachers, retired teachers, and college/university students as reviewers to provide expert feedback on student writing.

Write the Word holds competitions which pay winning young writers, but also offer expert review for those submitted by early dates. Helpful guidelines are provided for each contest to give young writers a clear context for their ideas.

Ash was the winner of the recently concluded New Year Competition with her piece, “The Trouble With This Year,” which begins: “There was something about this year. What was it? Oh yeah, the universe wanted to kill me. Or just drive me insane. Possibly both. Oh, right, intros. I’m Trouble, and don’t get any ideas: I’m not giving you my birth name. I’m a Federal Alchemist, so as far as the military is concerned, the codename is my real name. Either way, it fits.”

The next contest is for an op-ed piece on the subject of “Selfie-Reflection.” Early deadline for feedback is March 9; final deadline in March 17. The competition will be judged by Ben Shattuck.

Glimmer Train December Fiction Open Winners :: 2015

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their December Fiction Open competition. This competition is held twice a year. Stories generally range from 2000-6000 words, though up to 20,000 is fine. The next Fiction Open will take place in June. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Zeynep-Ozakat-credit-David-SamuelFirst place: Zeynep Ozakat of Istanbul, Turkey, wins $2500 for “Moving from Istanbul.” Her story will be published in Issue 96 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be her first published story. [Photo credit: David Samuel]

Second place: David Szucs of New York, NY, wins $1000 for “Rhubarb and Pussy Willow.”

Third place: Jonathan Frith of Cold Spring, NY, wins $600 for “Meese’s Father.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline TODAY for the Short Story Award for New Writers: February 28. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category run 1500-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize is $1500. Second/third: $500/$300. Click here for complete guidelines.

Fulton Prize for Fiction Winners

adirondack-reviewThe Winter 21014 issue of Adirondack Review features the winner and runner-up of their annual Fulton Prize for Short Fiction. Winner “Study of an Orange” by Theresa Duve Morales receives $400 and publication and “Embryology” by Barrett Bowlin wins $30 and publication. The issue also features some marvelous artwork by Alfredo Palmero, Oscar Varona, Federico Federici, Stephen Nelson, and Sandrine Pagnoux. All worth the click.

SubTerrain Eating Meat & Lush Triumphant

subterrainIssue #69 of SubTerrain: Strong Words for a Polite Nation is the result of a call for submissions on the theme of Meat – animal flesh that is eaten for food. Editor Brian Kaufman opens with his editorial “Conflicted, in Carnivore Land,” in which he writes that wading “into the thorny debate on meat consumption” was not intended. Still, he understands there may be just such perceptions with consequences: “While this issue is not intended to be a celebration of meat consumption so much as an exploration into our relationship with meat, we leave ourselves open to the flood of responses from the vegetarians and vegans – please send your letters in!”

This issue also includes winning entries from the 2014 Lush Triumphant Literary Awards:

Fiction
Winner: Vickie Weaver (Hagerstown, IN) for “Suggestion”

Poetry
Winner: Matt Whiteman (Vancouver, BC) for “Do Good, You Go”

Creative Non-fiction
Winner: George Ilsley (Vancouver, BC) for “Storytelling”

Event Non-Fiction 2015 Contest Winners

Event: Poetry and Prose, the Douglas College Review, issue 43.3 features the winners of the 2014 Non-Fiction Contest judged by Deborah Campbell [pictured], author of A Disappearnce in Damascus (August 2015, Knopf Canada).

deborah-campbell“Vocational Rehabilitation” by Hilary Dean
Scarborough, ON

“Whatever It Is” by Zachary Hug
West Hollywood, CA, USA

“Twenty Miles Above the Limit” by Alessandra Naccarato
Toronto, ON

The other short-listed entries can be found here.

Malahat Review Contest Winners

malahat-reviewThe Malahat Review #189 includes winners of the 2014 Far Horizons Award for Poetry and the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize.

Far Horizons Award for Poetry winner Laura Ritland’s poem “Vincent, in the Dream of Zundert” can be read on the publication’s website, along with an interview with her regarding the award.

“Venn Diagrams” the Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize winning piece by Rebecca Foust is only available in print, but the website includes an interview with Foust as well.

SRPR Editors’ Prize Winners

Spoon River Poetry Review Editors’ Prize 2014 contest winner, runners up and honorable mentions, selected by Joshua Corey, are all featured in the winter 2014 issue of Spoon River Poetry Review. First place winner Emma Bolden received $1000, an introduction included in the publication written by Corey, and an invitation to read at this year’s annual SRPR Lucia Getsi Reading Series, to be held in Bloomington, Illinois, in April 2015.

Winner
Emma Bolden, “It was no more predictable”

First Runner Up
Jonathan Soen, “Fragments from a Book”

Second Runner Up
Lynne Knight, “The Gospel of Infinity”

Honorable Mentions
Emma Bolden, “My little apparition, my little ghost”
Kathryn A Hindenlang, “This is the Nature”
Tori Grant Welhouse, “mor/bid”
Carine Topal, “Bone Jar: The Oven {An Elegy}”
Lynne Knight, “Sex”

The SRPR Editors’ Prize is an annual contest in which one winning poem is awarded $1,000, two runners-up are awarded $100 each, and 3-5 honorable mentions will be selected. All winning poems, honorable mentions, and several finalists are published. The annual deadline is postmark April 15.

The End Is Nigh Contest Winners

Carolina Quarterly Winter 2014 issue features the winners of their “End Is Nigh” contest, in which the editors asked for “dispatches about anxious endings, anticipated apocalypses, doomsday prepping, or getting right with God and family before it all comes crashing down.” The pool of entries was so strong, contest Judge Jim Shepard selected two winners ($575 each + publication) and two runners up ($150 each + publication).

Grand Prize Winners
“When Trains Fall From Space” by Ian Bassingthwaighte
“Cold Snap” by Robin McLean

Runners Up
“Blood by Blood” by Dominic Russ-Combs
“A Brief Chronicle of Jeff and His Role in What is Colloquially Known as ‘The End of Civilization'” by Caitlin Campbell

The magazine originally announced that the winners and runners up would be published in separate issues, but all four appear in this issue (volume 64.2) along with commentary from Shepard on his selection, which can also be read here in the original announcement.

2014 Gulf Coast Prize Winners Featured

The Winter/Spring 2015 issue of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts features the winners of the 2014 Gulf Coast Prizes:

gulf-coastPoetry
“Engagement Party, Georgia” by Raena Shirali
Selected by Rachel Zucker

Nonfiction
“Love Drones” by Noam Dorr
Selected by John D’Agata

Fiction
“Kansas, America, 1899” by Edward McPherson
Selected by Andrea Barrett

The deadline for this annual prize is March 22, 2015. This year’s judges are Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Fiction), Maggie Nelson (Nonfiction), and Carl Phillips (Poetry). The contest awards publication and $1500 each to the best poem, essay, and short story, as well as $250 to two honorable mentions in each genre. The winners will appear in Gulf Coast 28.1, due out in Fall 2015, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on the Gulf Coast website as Online Exclusives. The reading fee includes a one-year subscription to Gulf Coast and submissions are accepted both online and via postal mail.

Salamander Contest Winners

salamander1Salamander #39 features the 2014 fiction prize winner judged by Jennifer Haigh: “Dimension” by Barrett Warner. Of his work, Haigh says it is a “coming-of-age tale turned inside out, the hit-and-run love story of an unlikely couple on the skids. Their ill-fated affair is sketched with marvelous economy, style , and verve. Wise, playful, startling in its insight, this is a story made of remarkable sentences laid end to end.’

 “When Desire Can’t Find Its Object” by Margaret Osburn earned an honorable mention. Haigh writes that this work “depicts a meeting between old friends: a young draft dodger on a vision quest, and Iris, his best friend’s mother, who is not long for this world. In supple, elastic prose, it telegraphs – in seven short pages – a curious love story, a brief interlude that illumines an entire life.”

[Cover Art: “WC4173, 2010” by Ann Ropp]

Mid-American Review Celebrates

mid-american-reviewThe newest issue of Mid-American Review has much to celebrate. For its 35th Anniversary, Editor-in-Chief Abigail Cloud wanted to recognize the publication’s annual Fineline Competition, unique because it focuses on the short form in poetry and prose, and also because the magazine’s staff cross-read genres to choose the winners. This issue of MAR features 26 works from past Fineline winners in addition to the 2014 Fineline Competition selections: Allison Adair, Winner; Becky Hegenston, Runner-Up; Cherie Hunter Day and Nancy Hewitt, Editor’s Choices. A great issue for those looking to read winning works as well those who may want to enter future Fineline Competitions.

Ruminate Poetry & Art Prize Winners

ruminateRuminate Magazine Winter 2014-15 features poetry by the winners of the 2014 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize judged by Jeanne Murray Walker: First Place Emily Rose Cole; Second Place Charity Gingerich; Honorable Mention J. Scott Brownlee (whose poem “Pasture Ode” can be read here on Ruminate). Also featured are visual works in full color by the winners of the 2014 Kalos Visual Art Prize judged by Mary McCleary: First Place Hilary White, whose work is featured on the cover in addition to a portfolio within; Second Place Aaron Lee Benson; Honorable Mention Lisa Discepoli Line.

Able Muse Prize Winners & Featured Poet

able-museAble Muse Winter 2014 features poetry from Scott M. Miller, winner of the 2014 Write Prize for Poetry, as well as by finalists Eric Berlin, Marilyn L. Taylor, and Catherine Chandler. Winning work of the 2014 Write Prize for Fiction, J. Preston Witt, is featured as well.

New to this issue, Able Muse includes a Featured Poet. Wendy Videlock is the inaugural author to receive this honor,  having five new poems published within and an interview with David Mason. Videlock shares her perspectives on sound and silence, the use of and movement away from the first-person pronoun, the conscious and the subconscious, and much more on her craft of writing.

Antigonish Review Contest Winners

antigonish-reviewThe newest issue of The Antigonish Review features winning works for two of the publication’s 2014 contests:

14th Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest
Judges: Patricia Young and Peter Sanger

First Prize: Harold Hoefle, St-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC
Second Prize: Michael Prior, Toronto, ON
Third Prize: Joanna Lilley, Whitehorse, YT

10th Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest
Judges: Joan Baril, Reynold Stone, Gwen Davies and Heather Debling
Final Judge: Sheree Fitch

First Prize: Jen Julian, Columbia, MO
Second Prize: John O’Neill, Toronto, ON
Third Prize: Ryan Frawley, Edmonton, AB

Emerging Writer’s Contest Winners

ploughsharesThe newest issue of Ploughshares (Winter 2014-15) features works by winners of the magazine’s Emerging Writer’s Contest along with commentary from each of the judges:

FICTION
Tomiko M. Breland, “Rosalee Carrasco”

NONRICTION
Eliese Colette Goldbach, “In the Memory of the Living”

POETRY
Rosalie Moffett, Three Poems: “Why Is It the More”; “To Leave Through a Wall”; “Hurricane, 1989”

Atlanta Review Poetry Issue

The Fall/Winter 2014 issue of Atlanta Review is the Poetry 2014 issue, featuring just under 50 poets and just over 50 poems. Of these, 22 of the poets and their poems were selected for the International Publication Prize from the journal’s annual contest. And one selected above all others as the Grand Prize winner: Joyce Meyers.

Each Fall Issue includes at least 20 Publication Prize winners from their International Poetry Competition with one named for the grand prize cash award of $1000. Every Spring Issue of Atlanta Review includes an International Feature with poets from a different country or continent. The feature for spring 2015: Russia.

Glimmer Train Family Matters Winners :: 2014

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their September Family Matters competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories about family of all configurations. The next Family Matters competition will take place in March. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

RowenaMacdonaldFirst place: Rowena Macdonald, of London, UK, wins $1500 for “My Brother Is Back.” Her story will be published in Issue 96 of Glimmer Train Stories. [Photo credit: Martin Fuller.]

Second place: Joshua Graber, of Canton, OH, wins $500 for “Freeman Göttschall Experiences One or Two More or Less Improbably Events.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Janet Kim, of Cambridge, MA, wins $300 for “Teeth.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Sierra Nevada Young Writers Contest Winners

Sierra Nevada College’s English Program has released the winners of the 5th annual High School Writing Contest, a national competition which honors high school juniors and seniors in three categories: creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry. The winners in each category receive a cash prize of $500 for first place, $250 for second and $100 for third, and the $100 Local’s Prize honors student writers from Nevada and California. The winners also receive a $20,000 scholarship offer from SNC and consideration for publication in the Sierra Nevada Review, a literary annual which publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by emerging and nationally recognized authors.

The Winners

Creative Nonfiction

First Place: Lindsay Emi (Westlake Village, CA), “Latin Class in Seven (VII) Parts”
Second Place: Darla Macel Anne Canales (Erie, CO), “Oven”
Third Place: Gabriel Braunstein (Arlington MA), “Family on the Commuter Rail”
Local’s Prize: Isabella Stenvall (San Luis Obispo CA), “Wars with Numbers”

Finalists: Emily Zhang, Oriana Tang, Aletheia Wang, Jack Priessman, Annie Harmon

Fiction

First Place: Emily Zhang (Boyds MA), “Midwestern Myth”
Second Place: Lucy Silbaugh (Wyncote PA), “Burrowing”
Third Place: Laura Ingram (Disputanta VA), “Absolute Value”
Local’s Prize: Erin Stoodley (Ventura CA), “Ghosts”

Finalists: Lindsay Emi, Jessica Li, Tatiana Saleh, Madison Hoffman, Oriana Tang

Poetry

First Place: Oriana Tang (Livingston NJ), “Bildungsroman”
Second Place: Catherine Valdez (Miami FL), “Mami”
Third Place: Ruohan Miao (Chandler AZ), “Dust Bowl”
Local’s Prize: Ava Goga (Reno NV), “Notes on Repression”

Finalists: Emily Zhang, Katia Kozachok, Allie Spensley, Emma Symmonds, Jessica Prescott

American Short Fiction Contest Winner

american-short-fictionThe Fall 2014 issue of American Short Fiction features Scott Gloden’s “What Is Louder,” the winning entry of the American Short Fiction Contest. His same story had been awarded second place in the Glimmer Train March 2014 Family Matters Contest.

Gloden’s story is about a man who works in a post office and his brother who is soldier in Pakistan. Contest judge Amy Hempel praised the story for its new territory, commenting, “the ending is unnerving, very unsettling, and continues the story in a reader’s imagination.”

An excerpt: “My brother tells me that the bombs don’t look like they did on television when we were young: they’re not bowling balls with wick spouts that fire out like a sparkler. Instead, they’re clock radios; they’re wads of Silly Putty with electromagnetic current running through sparse wires; they’re ramshackle, he even said—so much so, a bomb looks more like something you store in the garage, which you don’t need every day but keep around in case of emergencies.”

Winners of the American Short Fiction prize receive $1000 and publication.

 

2015 Bard Fiction Winner

Laura-van-den-BergAuthor Laura van den Berg has been selected to receive the annual Bard Fiction Prize for 2015. The prize, established in 2001 by Bard College to encourage and support promising young fiction writers, consists of a $30,000 cash award and appointment as writer in residence for one semester. Van den Berg is receiving the prize for her book The Isle of Youth (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013). Van den Berg’s residency at Bard College will be for the spring 2015 semester, during which time she will continue her writing, meet informally with students, and give a public reading. Read what the judges had to say and more about the winner here.

Nimrod Awards Issue

nimrod-v58-n1-fall-winter-2014Every year, Nimrod puts out a special issue dedicated to that year’s awards: The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. This fall, Nimrod honors the selections made by fiction judge Chris Abani and poetry judge W. S. Di Piero. “The winning stories and poems display a breadth of style and creativity, each one unique in its approach to its subject.”

The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction
First Prize
Shobha Rao’s “Kavitha and Mustafa”

Second Prize
Jill Logan’s “Little House”

The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry
First Prize
Mary-Alice Daniel

Second Prize
Christopher Buckley

2014 Raymond Carver Contest Winners

carve-n9-fall-2014The latest issue of Carve features the winners of the 15th annual Raymond Carver Contest. This year, author Aimee Bender was the guest judge. “Bender’s inspiring stories showed me how exciting and powerful the short story form can be if you just play with the words andi mages and rhythms the right way,” writes Editor-in-Chief Matthew Limpede. “It is truly an honor that she accepted our invitation to guest judge.”

First Place
“Safe, Somewhere” by Baird Harper
From Aimee Bender: “Loved how this story was weird in such a quiet way… That lurking sense of menace that people connect to Carver is very real here. Well-written and distinct unto itself.”

Second Place
“The Snow Children” by Wendy Oleson
From Aimee Bender: “An open and lively child’s voice and a fluid feel to the prose—taking on big issues through the bewilderment and sensitivity of a kid’s point of view.”

Third Place
“Martha and Other Anomalies” by Kerrin Piché Serna
From Aimee Bender: “Captures well Martha’s feelings of returning new and different into a world that is not sure about what to do with her.”

Editor’s Choice (Kristin S. Vannamen)
“Cantaloupe” by Karen Loeb
From the editors: “Karen’s story, ‘Cantaloupe,’ takes a simple piece of fruit and infuses it with rich meaning against the backdrop of Japanese culture.”

Editor’s Choice (Matthew Limpede)
“Entra’acte” by Mark Connelly

Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers

QueenNon-Sequitur by Khadijah Queen is the winner of the second Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers. The award will presented, with a reading of the winning play directed by Fiona Templeton, on Monday, November 17th, 8:00pm  at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street, New York NY 10014.

In addition to the reading, the winner will receive a $2,500 cash prize and print publication of winning play by Litmus Press. And from this round on, the award will be biennial, with the winning play also receiving full production in the following year. The next call for entries will be in 2016.

In memory of Leslie Scalapino, her extraordinary body of work, and her commitment to the community of experimental writing and performance, the Leslie Scalapino Award recognizes the importance of exploratory approaches and an innovative spirit in writing for performance.  It wishes to encourage women writers who are taking risks with the playwriting form by offering the opportunity to gain wider exposure through readings and productions. The award also seeks to increase public awareness for this vibrant contemporary field.

Joyelle McSweeney was the winner of the inaugural award for her play Dead Youth, or, the Leaks.

Glimmer Train Award for New Writers Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their August Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. The next Short Story Award competition will take place in August. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

JohnThorntonWilliams1st place goes to John Thornton Williams [pictured] of Laramie, WY. He wins $1500 for “Darling, Keith, The Subway Girl, and Jumping Joe Henry” and his story will be published in Issue 95 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first print publication. 

2nd place goes to Stefan De La Garza of Fayetteville, AR. He wins $500 for “Chiaroscuro.”

3rd place goes to Laura Jok of Houston, TX. She wins $300 for “As It Were.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline soon approaching! Very Short Fiction Award: October 31. This competition is held quarterly, and 1st place has been increased to $1500 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, with no theme restrictions, and the word count must not exceed 3000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Winners of The Enizagam Literary Contest

enizagamThe latest volume of Enizagam, a literary journal edited, designed, and published by the high school students of the School of Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts, features the winners of their annual Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction.

Poetry
Winner: Kat Harville
Finalists: Laura Jo Hess, Michael Mlekoday

Fiction
Winner: Mirene Arsanios
Finalists: Alma Garcia, Mary Kuryla

Of Arsanios’s short story, Daniel Alarcon writes: “Mirene Arsanios has written a dreamy, sultry gem of a story. “B” is about love and desire and growing up; about the power dynamic between two girls on the cusp of being young women. I was drawn in by the careful, supple language, and the poetic rendering of a scene that is both mesmeric and utterly real. Bravo!”

Of Harville’s poems Eileen Myles writes: “Kat Harville #1 for me. I love the intense verbiness. It’s wild stuff full of sprung energy, shrinking and pouncing, full of animals and animalism, full of pronouncements: I am the terrible vanilla and you….It’s brave, passionate, fun dark work that is running on its own honor, its own steam and it does not let up and I am never once disappointed in this work. She plays it to the end, a real poet.”

Poet Bruce Bond Wins 2014 Tampa Review Prize

Bruce TFRBruce Bond, of Denton, Texas, has been named winner of the 2014 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. Bond receives the thirteenth annual prize for his new manuscript, Black Anthem. In addition to a $2,000 check, the award includes hardback and paperback book publication in 2015 by the University of Tampa Press. A sampling of poems from Black Anthem will appear as a “sneak preview” in a forthcoming issue of Tampa Review, the award-winning hardback literary journal published by the University of Tampa Press. Bond’s book will be released in the fall of 2015.

The judges also announced ten finalists this year:

Brian Brodeur of Cincinnati, Ohio, for “Persons of Interest”;
Polly Buckingham of Medical Lake, Washington, for “A Day Like This”;
Mark Cox of Wilmington, North Carolina, for “No Picnic in the Afterlife”;
Tom Hansen of Custer, South Dakota, for “Body of Water, Body of Fire”;
Judy Jordan of Anna, Illinois, for “Children of Salt”;
Tim Mayo of Brattleboro, Vermont, for “The Body’s Pain”;
Robert McNally of Concord, California, for “Simply to Know Its Name”;
Joel Peckham of Huntington, West Virginia, for “Body Memory”;
Brittney Scott of Richmond, Virginia, for “The Derelict Daughter”; and
Carol Westberg of Hanover, New Hampshire, for “Terra Infirma.”

The Tampa Review Prize for Poetry is given annually for a previously unpublished booklength manuscript. Judging is by the editors of Tampa Review, who are members of the faculty at the University of Tampa. Submissions are now being accepted for 2015. Entries must follow published guidelines and must be postmarked by December 31, 2014.

2014 Ekphrasis Prize Winner

Joseph StantonThe Fall/Winter 2014 issue of Ekphrasis features the winner of the 2014 Ekphrasis Prize for Poetry, winning $500 and publication. Editors Laverne and Carol Frith announce that it was selected among “a very strong field of contenders.” The winner is Joseph Stanton for his “outstanding” poem “Thomas Dewing’s Lady with a Lute.” Here is a few stanzas from the beginning:

Dewing has a passion for the Lady with the lute
we cannot avoid
knowing that.

Though her almost classic face lifts to light
in full profile, her torso twists
ever so slightly

To show her décolleté,
her bosom surprisingly exposed
above her slender waist.

Men linger in front of this picture
in its corner of the National Gallery
till their wives pull them past.

Florida Review 2013 Editors’ Awards

florida-review-v38-n1-2-2014The current issue of Florida Review features the winners of the 2013 Editors’ Awards, which were awarded in essay, fiction, and poetry categories. As a new feature to this section, the editors invited the winners to contribute about “the creative genesis and evolution of their winning work.” Editor Jocelyn Bartkevicius writes, “Dan Reiter, whose story of Holocaust survivors, ‘All Your First Born,’ won the fiction award, tells of viewing a videotaped interview with his grandparents, who, unlike other family members of their generation did survive the Holocaust, and how their testimony inspired his writing. Lisa Lanser-Rose, whose braided essay, ‘Turnpike Psycho,’ revolves around a friend’s murder and her own harrowing encounter with a stalker, writes about transitioning from a simple retelling of a particular situation to an exploration of its deeper ramifications as a ‘story.’ John Blair, winner of the poetry award, writes of the links between his poems and history, autobiography, and memory, an eclectic continuum with such varied topics as atrocities in Somalia and Chechnya, the Roman Inquisition, leukemia, and hands-on labor in the garden.

Essay Winner

Lisa Lanser-Rose: “Turnpike Psycho”

Essay Finalist

Tanya Bomsta: “Traditions”

Fiction Winner

Dan Reiter: “All Your Firstborn”

Fiction Finalist

Rachel Borup: “Crash”

Poetry Winner

John Blair: “The Lesser Poet,” “And Yet It Moves,” & “Dirt”

Poetry Finalist

Tanya Grae: “Like Darwin’s Finches,” “Verbal Abuse,” & “Cage Sonnet”

Gimmer Train Very Short Fiction Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their Very Short Fiction Award. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count under 3000. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in October. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Luchette cred Kate Van BrocklinFirst place: Claire Luchette, of Brooklyn, NY, wins $1500 for “Full.” Her story will be published in Issue 95 of Glimmer Train Stories. [Pictured; Photo by Kate Van Brocklin]

Second place: Omid Fallahazad, of Framingham, MA, wins $500 for “Arrested.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Louise Blecher Rose, of New York, NY, wins $300 for “Deux Ex Machina.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline coming up! Family Matters: September 30 Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place has been increased to $1500 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers for stories about families of all configurations. Most submissions to this category run 1200-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Contest Winners :: Arc Poem of the Year & Diana Brebner Prize

arc-poetry741Arc Poetry Magazine #74 features the winners of the Poem of the Year Contest. Selected from over 500 submissions, one winner receives $5000 – a daunting process even the editors recognize the “craziness” of, beginning with: How were we going to agree on what was the best poem when we sometime can’t even agree on what a poem is? How can anyone just have one “best” poem when so much of what poetry does is question the very ideas of aesthetic hierarchies and commonly agreed upon truths?

Alas, the editors were able to sort, select and agree upon “Consider the Lilies” by Kristina Bresnen. Judges, editors, and e-poetry readers also helped select other poets worthy of “high accolades”: Nancy Holmes, Matt Jones, Michael Lithgow, Steve McOrmond, and Jennifer Zilm.

Additionally, this issue features winning poems of the annual Diana Brebner Prize, open to poets in the Ottawa area who have not yet published a book. Judge Pearl Pirie chose Anne Marie Todkill as the winner and Vivan Vavassis as the runner-up.

Westchester Review Writers Under 30 Contest Winners

The newest issue (volume 7) of The Westchester Review: A Literary Journal of Writers from the Hudson to the Sound, includes the winners of the 2nd Annual Writers Under 30 Contest, which is open to writers of poetry and fiction who live, work, or study in the Lower Hudson Valley and who are under the age of 30. The prize for fiction was awarded to Matt Nestor for his short story, “Bushwick,” and the prize for poetry was awarded to Kay Cosgrove for her poem, “Study in Blue.” Both winners received $100, publication, and two copies of The Westchester Review. Runners-up will be considered for publication.

Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award Winners

The newest issue of Paterson Literary Review (#42) features the 2013 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award winners, including the full list of honorable mentions and editor’s choice selections. In the top tier:

paterson-literary-reviewFIRST PRIZE (shared)
Svea Barrett, Fair Lawn, NJ
Grace Cavalieri, Annapolis, MD

SECOND PRIZE (shared)
Charles H. Johnson, Hillsborough, NJ
Carolyn Pettit Pinet, Bozeman, MT

THIRD PRIZE
Alice Jay, Miami, FL

More information about the prize as well as the full list of winners can be found here.