CutBank is excited to announce our guest judges for this year’s genre contests for the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, the Montana Prize in Fiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry.
The Montana Prize in Fiction
Judged by Andrew Sean Greer
Andrew Sean Greer is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of six works of fiction, including the bestsellers The Confessions of Max Tivoli and Less. Greer has taught at a number of universities, including the Iowa Writers Workshop, been a TODAY show pick, a New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellow, a judge for the National Book Award, and a winner of the California Book Award and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award. He is the recipient of a NEA grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He lives in San Francisco.
The Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction
Judged by Chris La Tray
Chris La Tray is a writer and a walker. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His next book, Becoming Little Shell, will be published by Milkweed Editions in Spring 2021. Chris is Chippewa-Cree Métis, and is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He lives near Missoula, MT.
The Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry
Judged by Heather Cahoon
Heather Cahoon, PhD, received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Montana where she was the Richard Hugo Memorial Scholar. She has been awarded a Merriam Frontier Prize, a Potlatch Fund Native Arts grant and a Montana Arts Council Artist Innovation Award. Her writing has appeared in Lit Hub, Yellow Medicine Review, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Carve, and Cutthroat among others. Her first full length collection of poems entitled Horsefly Dress, is forthcoming from the University of Arizona Press in fall of 2020. Heather is also a federal Indian policy scholar and Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Montana. She grew up on the Flathead Reservation in western Montana and is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.
One winner in each genre, as chosen by our guest judges, will receive a $500 award and publication in the summer print issue of CutBank. All entries must be submitted electronically, and complete guidelines are available on our Submittable page. Remember: we're looking for work that showcases an authentic voice, an original perspective, and a willingness to push against the boundaries of form.
Deadlines close on February 1st, so get those manuscripts polished and in to us!