Winners of the 2023 CutBank Genre Contests

We are excited to announce the winners and finalists of the 2023 CutBank Genre Contests, judged by J.P. Grasser, Joni Tevis, and Sterling HolyWhiteMountain. We appreciate every submission we get — thank you for the opportunity to read your work. The winning stories will be published in CutBank 99.

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Winner, Montana Prize in Nonfiction: “Disembodied” by Jen Knox

Judged by Joni Tevis

Praise for “Disembodied” from Joni Tevis: “I was immersed in this essay from the very first line. 'Imagine a young woman,' the speaker invites the reader to do; I did. The dream of being someone 'degreed and respected, a woman people will listen to'; a woman with house, yard, and 'sweet dog with an underbite' (yes!) was a dream that hit home with me. I wanted this for her, and when I saw her hurt in body and mind, leaning against the wall of a Goody Boy, I had to find out what had brought her there—and how she would move on from it... And this piece manages the impressive feat of both depending on the feeling of separation from the body, and putting the reader into the lived, grounded experience of this speaker. The essay earns its powerful conclusion: '…I see a young woman who bears down with the strength of a warrior, while her body rises.' The ground pushed back. I feel honored to have read your story. Thank you.”

Jen Knox is the author of We Arrive Uninvited (Steel Toe Books, 2023) and After the Gazebo (Rain Mountain Press). Her writing appears in Room, The Saturday Evening Post, Five South, and elsewhere. Jen teaches at Ohio State University. Find her at jenknox.com.

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2023 Nonfiction Contest Finalists:

“Zero-Zero Star” by Jenn Blair

"South Pass" by Laura Stride

"Meditation 42" by Julie Marie Wade

“Unfolding" by Brian Watson

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Winner, Montana Prize in Fiction: “How to Be a Curly Girl” by Timothy Mullaney

Judged by Sterling HolyWhiteMountain

Praise for “How to Be a Curly Girl” from Sterling HolyWhiteMountain: “Here is a work that dispenses with the unnecessary and moves with confidence through the existential questions that haunt us regardless of culture, gender, or who we desire most: Who am I? How should I live? And, perhaps most importantly, What can I do about the pain I’ve caused? This story had me from start to finish.”

Timothy Mullaney's writing has previously appeared in publications including Crazyhorse (now swamp pink), The Advocate, Salamander, and Washington Square. He was a Van Lier Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop in NYC and received his MFA in creative writing from Washington University in St. Louis.

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2023 Fiction Contest Finalists:

"On the Teary Banks of the Neelum" by Ashish Kaul

“Optimize Optical” by Katherine Merrill

"The Winners" by Alan Sincic

“The Way Out Back" by Krissi Stocks

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Winner, Goedicke Prize in Poetry: “The Tests Are Simple” by Samuel Piccone

Judged by J.P. Grasser

Praise for “The Tests Are Simple” from J.P. Grasser: "A good poem expresses uncertainty. It holds a thing and its opposite in close proximity. A great poem enacts uncertainty. 'The Tests are Simple' does just that. It’s sprawling and lapidary at once, sharp and diffuse, both in its subject and its enactment. As it unfolds, it enfolds. Questions become answers become questions. Silence echoes back into sound. Surely it is the product not only of a deft eye and ear (it is) but likewise a deeply felt experience, whether imagined or lived. As soon as I think I understand it, it slips away. Which is what great poems do."

Samuel Piccone is the author of the chapbook Pupa (Anhinga Press, 2018). His work has appeared in Frontier Poetry, Washington Square Review, and RHINO. He’s on the poetry staff at Raleigh Review and is a lecturer at Iowa State University.

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2023 Goedicke Contest Finalists:

"A Manual for Gurbet" by Zuleyha Ozturk Lasky

"Mise en Place" by Carole Symer

"Before the Glass Breaks" by Lou Turner

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Winners of the 2022 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest

We are excited to announce the winners of the 2022 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest, judged by S.M. Hulse. We appreciate every submission we get — thank you for the opportunity to read your work. The winning stories will be published in CutBank 98.

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First-Place Prize:

“Behemoth” by Kathleen Walker

Kathleen Walker lives in South Carolina, where she writes in the company of her two cats. She recently completed her undergraduate degree in creative writing from Virginia Tech. Her work has previously appeared in Susurrus and Silhouette Magazine.

From contest judge S.M. Hulse: “‘Behemoth’ opens with the narrator falling into a social media rabbit hole involving various means of disposing of and displaying animal remains. What follows is a meditation on loss and love that balances grit and grief, expertly — and with a surprising touch of humor —combining earthy physical reality with the intangibles of human experience.”

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Runners-up:

“Incline and Rise” by Rose McLarney

“To the Woman in the Fred Meyer Self-Checkout Line Who Thought I Was More Puerto Rican Than I Really Am” by Rachel Attias

Rose McLarney’s books are Forage and Its Day Being Gone, both from Penguin Poets, as well as The Always Broken Plates of Mountains, published by Four Way Books. Currently, Rose is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Auburn University. Her fourth collection of poems will be published by Penguin in 2024.

Rachel Attias's writing has appeared in n+1, Porter House Review, X-R-A-Y, and more. A recipient of a residency at Hedgebrook, she holds an MFA from Oregon State University and is at work on her first novel and a collection of stories.

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S.M. Hulse is the author of two novels set in Montana. Her first novel, Black River, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, an ABA Indies Introduce title, an Indie Next pick, and the winner of the Reading the West Book Award. Her second novel, Eden Mine, won the Christianity Today Book Award for fiction and was an Amazon Best Books of the Year selection. Hulse received her MFA from the University of Oregon and has taught creative writing at several universities. An avid horsewoman, she has lived throughout the American West.

Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to our judge, S.M. Hulse! Look for these stories in print in our forthcoming issue of CutBank 98.

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CutBank's 2021 Genre Contest Winners

After much deliberation, our judges have announced the winners of CutBank’s 2021 genre contest! Winning pieces will be featured in the forthcoming issue of CutBank 95, due out this summer. Thank you to everyone who submitted. It is always an honor to read your work.

Finalists:

Carey Olney

Anne Kilfoyle

Stephanie Early Green

Paul Riker

2021 Montana Prize in Fiction, judged by Emily Ruskovich

Winner: “Of All the Fires that Ever Burned” by Stephen Brophy

Emily Ruskovich had this to say about the story:

“I loved this story for its twists and turns and also for its heart. Though the story ends with violence and death, what lingers most for me is kindness. Such unlikely kindness, such humanity. This man, who has fought poverty and prejudice his whole life, this man who has had to lie and to steal in order to endure, finds truth in the fires of the past, just before his death. This tragic story stirred me deeply. I was very moved.”

Stephen Brophy's short fiction has appeared on Bandit Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Shotgun Honey, among others. He is currently working on a collection of linked short stories. He lives in Cork, Ireland with his fiancée and two sons. You can find him on Twitter at @sbrophy85.

Emily Ruskovich is the author of the novel IDAHO (Random House, 2017). In 2019, she became the fourth American to win the International Dublin Literary Award. She received her B.A. from the University of Montana, her M.A. from the University of New Brunswick, and her M.F.A from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Zoetrope, One Story, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her short story "Owl" won a 2015 O. Henry Award. She currently teaches fiction in the M.F.A. program at Boise State University, but will be joining the faculty at the University of Montana in Fall of 2021. She and her husband have two small daughters.

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2021 Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, judged by Peter Godwin

Winner: “Father as Natural Disaster” by Lena Crown

Peter Godwin had this to say about the story:

“A beautifully rendered remembrance of an incendiary father, seen through the prism of the California wildfires that provided his living as a public loss adjuster, described in the ‘vocabulary of combustion.’”

Lena Crown is a writer from Oakland, California. Her work is published or forthcoming in Sonora Review, The Offing, Entropy, Hobart, and JMWW, among others. She is currently stationed outside Washington, D.C., pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at George Mason University. Find her on Twitter at @which_is_to_say.

Finalists:

Amy Gordon

Richard Prins

Will Howard

Peter Godwin was born and raised in Zimbabwe. He studied law at Cambridge University and international relations at Oxford. He has taught writing at Princeton and the New School, and currently teaches at Columbia. He is an award-winning foreign correspondent, documentary-maker, screenwriter, and a former president of PEN America. He is the author of six non-fiction books, including: Wild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa (with photos by Chris Johns and foreword by Nelson Mandela), Mukiwa, which received the George Orwell prize and the Esquire-Apple-Waterstones award, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which won the Borders Original Voices Award, and The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe, which was selected by the New Yorker as a best book of the year.

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Finalists:

Rebecca Carson

Cindy Juyoung Ok

Mervyn Seivwright

Haley Winans

2021 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, judged by William Jolliff

Winner: “How to Behead a Snake” by Ben Kline

William Jolliff had this to say about the poem:

“How to Behead a Snake” achieves lasting power through its masterful use of sensual particularity, keen detailing of an unsettling narrative, and painful suggestion of otherness. The final stanza offers a non-predictable turn from cruel high school antics to a personal history of deeply felt isolation. This poem is hard to read—and harder yet to forget.”

Ben Kline (he/him) lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of Sagittarius A* (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020) and Dead Uncles (Driftwood Press, 2021.) His work appeared in Thrush, Indianapolis Review, DIAGRAM, Hobart, The Cortland Review, A&U Magazine and elsewhere. He tweets @BenKlinePoet.

William Jolliff has published several hundred poems in academic journals, literary reviews, and anthologies, along with many critical articles and reviews. He has also served for many years as a contributing poetry editor for The Windhover. His most recent books are a poetry collection, Twisted Shapes of Light (Cascade Press-Poiema Poetry Series, 2016), and a critical monograph, Heeding the Call: A Study of Denise Giardina’s Novels (West Virginia University Press, 2020). In 2014 his work was included in poet laureate Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry. In addition to writing poetry and criticism, Bill is a musician, a student of Appalachian culture, and a songwriter in the folk tradition. His original compositions and reworkings of traditional material have been recorded by several artists, among them Tracy Grammer, whose recording of Bill’s “Laughlin Boy” was the most played song on the most played album on folk stations in 2005. A practicing Quaker, Bill currently serves as professor of English at George Fox University in Oregon.

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The 2022 Montana Prizes in Creative Nonfiction and Fiction, as well as the Patricia Goedicke Poetry Prize, open on November 9, 2021. Stay tuned for an announcement about the upcoming year’s judges.

CutBank's 2020 Genre Contest Winners

After much deliberation, our judges have announced the winners of CutBank’s 2020 genre contest! Winning pieces will be featured in the forthcoming issue of CutBank 93, due out this summer. Thank you to everyone who submitted. It is always an honor to read your work.

2020 Montana Prize in Fiction, judged by Andrew Sean Greer

K.C. Mead-Brewer, author of “The Hidden People”

Winner: "The Hidden People" by K.C. Mead-Brewer

(read full story here)

Andrew Sean Greer had this to say about "The Hidden People":

"I found the portrayal of their friendship, and the local descriptions, so well done, but it’s really how the author manages to insert a layer of mystery, and horror, that makes the story twice as good.  A well-told unsettling story that seems, somehow, perfect for these times. I left it with a sense that the world is not what we think it is."

K.C. Mead-Brewer’s fiction appears in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Joyland Magazine, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. She’s a graduate of Tin House's 2018 Winter Workshop and the 2018 Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop. Check out kcmeadbrewer.com and follow @meadwriter

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.

Finalists:

Sophia Veltfort 

Stephen Hundley

Ellen Skirvin

Craig Pearson

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2020 Montana Prize in Nonfiction, judged by Chris La Tray

Robert Rebein, author of “Welcome to the Hotel Sabra”

Winner: “Welcome to the Hotel Sabra" by Robert Rebein 

Chris La Tray had this to say about "Welcome to the Hotel Sabra":

"This old school adventure/travel-type yarn is the kind of thing that so many years ago made me fall in love with narrative nonfiction in the first place. It is exciting, humorous, and fun, and that’s what I need to be reading more of these days."

Robert Rebein is the author of two book-length works of creative nonfiction, Headlights on the Prairie: Essays on Home (University Press of Kansas, 2017) and Dragging Wyatt Earp: A Personal History of Dodge City (Swallow Press, 2013). He teaches creative writing at IUPUI in Indianapolis where he also serves as Interim Dean of the IU School of Liberal Arts.

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.

Finalists:

Will Howard

Faith Shearin

Sarah Capdeville 

CMarie Fuhrman

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2020 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, judged by Heather Cahoon

Kathleen Madrid, author of “Kin—"

Winner: “Kin—" by Kathleen Madrid

Heather Cahoon had this to say about “Kin—":

"I selected “Kin—" for its striking images (flight of wildfowl, red-throated shame, jackoak, mangrove, pig thistle, puncturevine, and venom) and the rhythm of the lines when read aloud.  I love the question it ruminates on, “What makes blood thicker than water?” and the answers it supplies: a man “with florid nose, in Roman tones” who “split for Denver” and a woman who wears “lipsticks in every red” and smokes cigarettes, a woman who “loves me to distraction and drinks”.  Amid baggage, gaps, ashtrays and addiction, the speaker winds down this poem with a final, brief meditation on Kin, writing, “like winter.  And time / Pine branches   free of / leaves.        Everyone who / didn’t.'"

Kathleen Madrid is an alumna of the Poetry Collective at Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop. Her poetry has appeared in Rue Scribe, Twyckenham Notes, 8 Poems, and others. Her poem “Sisters—Suvarova” was nominated for Best of the Net 2019.

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.

Finalists:

Hari Alluri 

Benjamin Gucciardi

Jennifer Pons

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The 2021 Montana Prizes in Creative Nonfiction and Fiction, as well as the Patricia Goedicke Poetry Prize, open on November 9, 2020. Stay tuned for an announcement about the upcoming year’s judges.

Winners of the 2019 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest

We are excited to announce the winners of the 2019 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest, judged by Melinda Moustakis. We appreciate every submission we get, so thank you. The winning stories will be published in CutBank 92.

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First-Place Prize:

“what we hold in our belly” by J.J. Peña

JJ Peña is a queer, burrito-blooded writer, living & existing in El Paso, Tx. His work appears in, or is forthcoming from, Passages North, Split Lip, Into the Void, Hayden’s Ferry, & elsewhere. He has an MFA from the University of Texas at El Paso. @heckaseuss

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Runners-up:

“My Sister and Other Big Things” by Darcy Casey

“Our Little Tradition” by Stephen Hundley

Darcy Casey is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program. Her work has appeared in the 34th Parallel, River River, and elsewhere. She is working on her second novel and teaches writing workshops in Maine. @DarcyLeeCasey

Stephen Hundley is a former high school science teacher from Savannah, Georgia. His work has appeared in Notre Dame Review, Carve, Permafrost, and other journals. He serves as a fiction editor for The Swamp and Driftwood Press and is a Richard Ford Fellow at the University of Mississippi. Instagram at: smhundley

Finalists:

Mariya Poe

Elizabeth Chesla

Joyce Dehli

Margie Sarsfield

Sammy Salem

Rachel Laverdiere

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Melinda Moustakis was born in Fairbanks, Alaska and grew up in California. She is the author of Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Maurice Prize, and was a 5 Under 35 selection by the National Book Foundation. Her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Alaska Quarterly Review, Granta, Kenyon Review, New England Review and elsewhere. Her story “They Find the Drowned” won an O. Henry Prize. She is the recipient of the Hodder Fellowship from The Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University, the NEA Literature Fellowship in Fiction, the Kenyon Review Fellowship at Kenyon College, the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington Fellowship at George Washington University, and the Rona Jaffe Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. We’re honored to have her as our guest judge for this contest.

Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to our judge, Melinda Moustakis! Look for these stories in print in our forthcoming issue of CutBank 92.

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The 2020 Big Sky, Small Prose Contest is open for Submissions from August 16 - September 30

Announcing this year's genre contest judges: Andrew Sean Greer, Chris La Tray, and Heather Cahoon

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!

CutBank's 2019 Genre Contest Winners

We are thrilled to announce that our judges have chosen the winners of this year’s genre contests! Every year we receive wonderful submissions, and they are always a pleasure to read.

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2019 Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction

Cheryl Strayed, author of the acclaimed memoir Wild, has chosen the winner of this year’s Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction.

Winner: “Sanctum” by Arya Samuelson

Arya Samuelson’s prose has been published in Entropy, The Millions, and Hematopoiesis Press. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and is writing her first novel. In a surprising twist of fate, Arya directs a new synagogue in Brooklyn. You can find her at www.aryasamuelson.com.

Finalists:

Maryah Converse

Meredith Clark

Jonathan Wei

Briana Loveall

Heather Quinn

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2019 Montana Prize in Fiction

The wonderful Joe Wilkins has chosen a winner for this year’s Montana Prize in Fiction.

Winner: “this life of (y)ours” by Laura Price Steele

Laura Price Steele is a writer and editor currently living in Wilmington, NC, where she earned her MFA from UNCW. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Blue Mesa Review, and Solstice Magazine, among others. You can find her at laurapricesteele.com.

Finalists:

Molly Sturdevant

Carlos Rafael Gomez

Elizabeth Hall

Toni Judnitch

Nick Almeida

Kate Garklavs

Rachel Furey

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2019 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry

We’re happy to announce Alicia Mountain’s selection for this year’s Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry.

Winner: “YYX to AMS,” by Erin Russell

Erin Russell @etcall is winner of the 2019 Able Muse Fiction Prize and UofT's Wycliffe College Poetry Award. Currently subeditor at Black Bough, her work has appeared in Burning House, Train, and Time Out. She lectures at Amsterdam University College.

Finalists:

Brittany Tomaselli

John Sibley Williams

Samuel Piccone

David Sam

A. Crabtree

A huge thank you to our amazing judges, and to all of you for submitting your work. Look for the winning pieces in the next issue of CutBank!

The 2020 Montana Prizes in Creative Nonfiction and Fiction, as well as the Patricia Goedicke Poetry Prize, open on November 9th. Stay tuned for an announcement about the upcoming year’s judges.

Winners of the 2018 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest

We are thrilled to announce the winners for the 2018 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest, judged by Andrew Martin. Thank you to everyone who submitted. The winning stories will be published in CutBank 90, due out soon. The 2019 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest is currently open for submissions.

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First-Place Prize:

"The Lizard That Lived Forever" by Sara Ryan

Judge Andrew Martin writes, “The language is striking, and there's a visceral rawness to it that got to me. I thought the voice was original and intense, and I liked how hardcore it was. It felt urgent."

Sara Ryan is the author of the chapbooks Never Leave the Foot of an Animal Unskinned (Porkbelly Press) and Excellent Evidence of Human Activity (The Cupboard Pamphlet). Winner of the 2018 Grist Pro Forma Contest, her work has been published in Pleiades, DIAGRAM, Booth, and others. She is currently pursuing her PhD at Texas Tech University.

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Runners-up:

“Rapture” by Eliza Smith

"Concussion" by Ruth Joffre

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Andrew Martin is the author of the novel Early Work, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Zyzzyva, and Tin House’s Flash Fridays series. His nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Washington Post.

Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to Andrew Martin! Look for these stories in print in our forthcoming issue of CutBank 90.

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The 2019 Big Sky, Small Prose Flash contest is currently accepting submissions and will be judged by acclaimed author Melinda Moustakis. The deadline for submission is September 30, 2019. Click here for details on how to submit your work.

Announcing this year's genre contest guest judges: Cheryl Strayed, Joe Wilkins, and Alicia Mountain

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 Creative Nonfiction
Judged by Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild, the New York Times bestsellers Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, and the novel Torch. Wild was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her first selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0. Strayed's books have been translated into nearly forty languages around the world and have been adapted for both the screen and the stage. Strayed's essays have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, The Sun, Tin House, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.

The Montana Prize in Fiction
Judged by Joe Wilkins

Joe Wilkins was born and raised north of the Bull Mountains, out on the Big Dry of eastern Montana. His debut novel, Fall Back Down When I Die, speaks to the community, struggle, violence, and care Joe knew growing up in the rural West, and his memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, captures the lives of boys and men in that desolate country, a place that shapes the people who live there and rarely lets them go. The Mountain and the Fathers: Growing up on the Big Dry won a 2014 GLCA New Writers Award—an honor that has previously recognized early work by luminaries such as Alice Munro, Richard Ford, and Louise Erdrich—and Wilkins’s work has been anthologized in The Pushcart Prize Anthology, Best American Magazine Writing, New Poets of the American West, and Best New Poets. 

The Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry
Judged by Alicia Mountain

Alicia Mountain’s debut collection, High Ground Coward (Iowa, 2018), was selected by Brenda Shaughnessy to win the Iowa Poetry Prize. She is also the author of the Thin Fire, selected by Natalie Diaz and published by BOAAT Press. She is a lesbian poet, PhD candidate, and assistant editor of the Denver Quarterly. Mountain earned her MFA at the University of Montana in Missoula.

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 in eight days, on February 1st, so get those manuscripts polished and in to us.

Andrew Martin to judge this year's Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest!

We're excited to announce that Andrew Martin will be the guest judge for our Big Sky, Small Prose: Flash Contest! His novel Early Work was just published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and his stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Zyzzyva, and Tin House’s Flash Fridays series. His nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Washington Post.

Submissions are still open, so get your best short prose into us by September 30 for a chance to win the $500 first place prize and publication in CutBank 90. 

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Early Work

A Novel

by Andrew Martin

“Marvelous . . . Read [Early Work] on a beach for the refreshment of a classic boy-meets-girl plot, or turn the pages more slowly to soak in some truly salty koans and morally insolvent characters . . . It’s an accomplished and delightful book, but there’s no hashtag for that.”
―Molly Young, The New York Times

“[Andrew] Martin introduces characters in sharp, funny flash-portraits that declare the book’s intention to perch, vape in hand, on the border of earnestness and satire . . . Early Work is a gift for those readers who like being flirted with by thoughtful and interesting people, and who like observing such people as they flirt with each other.”
―Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

“[The] story of a love triangle . . . Martin reinvigorates the form, transposing its chords and riffing on its most familiar melodies.” —Max Ross, The Paris Review

“Compulsively readable . . . [Early Work] asks big questions about ambition and success and art and love, but it's also a story of a love affair, delicious and horrible in equal measure.”
―Emily Temple, Literary Hub

“Stunning . . . whip-smart and rather disturbing . . . [Andrew] Martin has a remarkable ear for natural dialogue and pitch-perfect, witty banter . . .”
―Dana Hansen, Chicago Review of Books

“From a simple boy-meets-girl premise and from the most basic dramatic ingredients—ardor, art, alcohol, anxiety—Andrew Martin has concocted an exceptionally funny and disturbing first novel. I found myself thinking of Goodbye, Columbus and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh—from its title and its opening sentence on, Early Workachieves the feel of a classic debut.”
—Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special

 “The people in Andrew Martin’s Early Work have it all—youth, intelligence, ready wit, readier irony, terminally knowing tastes in books and music, affordable rents, abundant abusable substances, prolific sexual lives, even endearing dogs—and it’s perversely exhilarating to watch them, despite their fits of good-heartedness, turn a bucolic bohemia into a hipster hellscape. This is one smart, funny, scary novel.”
—David Gates, author of Jernigan and The Wonders of the Invisible World

 “What a debut! Early Work is one of the wittiest, wisest (sometimes silliest, in the best sense), and bravest novels about wrestling with the early stages of life and love, of creative and destructive urges, I’ve read in a while. The angst of the young and reasonably comfortable isn’t always pretty, but Andrew Martin possesses the prose magic to make it hilarious, illuminating, moving.” —Sam Lipsyte, author of The Fun Parts and The Ask

“Beautifully executed and very funny, Early Work is a sharp-eyed, sharp-voiced debut that I didn’t want to put down.” —Julia Pierpont, author of Among the Ten Thousand Things and The Little Book of Feminist Saints

“To ignore Andrew Martin’s Early Work—a wry and pitch-perfect novel about late-twentysomething writers and lazy, progressive creatives in varying stages of existential crises—because of any painful familiarity is to do yourself a disservice.” —Arianna Rebolini, BuzzFeed

Andrew Martin’s stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Zyzzyva, and Tin House’s Flash Fridays series, and his nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, and other publications. Early Work is his first novel.

Early Work, by Andrew Martin, was published in hardcover by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on July 10, 2018 (ISBN: 978-0-374-14612-2, $26.00). For more information, please contact Lauren Roberts(212-206-5325, lauren.roberts@fsgbooks.com).

Events

7/10 – Harvard Book Store – Cambridge, MA

7/11 – Labyrinth Books – Princeton, NJ

7/12 – McNally Jackson Books (Williamsburg) – Brooklyn, NY

7/14 – Politics and Prose Bookstore – Washington, DC

7/17 – New Dominion Bookshop – Charlottesville, VA

8/21 – Point Street Reading Series – Providence, RI

9/27–30 – Montana Book Festival – Missoula, MT

10/01 – Powell’s City of Books – Portland, OR

10/13 – Boston Book Festival – Boston, MA

10/14 – KGB Bar – New York, NY

J. Matthew Gottwig's "Tether" wins the Montana Prize in Fiction!

We are thrilled to announce that J. Matthew Gottwig's "Tether" is this year's winner in the Montana Prize in Fiction, chosen by Monica Drake. Congratulations! 

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J. Matthew Gottwig is a Montana native now living in Baltimore, MD with his wife and kids. He works for the University of Maryland library system and is pursuing his MFA from the University of Baltimore.

In addition to a $500 prize, Gottwig's's winning work will appear in CutBank 89, our summer 2018 issue.

Find J. Matthew Gottwig on
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jgottwig
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/jeremy.m.gottwig/
And at http://www.strangeshuttle.com/

Judge Monica Drake selected "Tether":

"...for the way it navigates a space between human connection and disconnection, between the individual and community, between love and terror. A child’s mortality holds a family together, which happens every day, but in this case the author has carried the question into the realm of the inexplicable, the supernatural or spiritual, raising questions of how we understand our world and how we live with ourselves and each other. It reaches a beautiful moment by the ending, without ever overly resolving the intangible qualities. I appreciate this story."

* * *

Meet Monica Drake: "I have an MFA from the University of Arizona and teach at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. My debut Novel, Clown Girl, is published by the amazing indie press, Hawthorne Books, and has won an Eric Hoffer Award as well as an IPPY. It’s been translated into Italian, and recently optioned for film by the brilliant Kristen Wiig (SNL, Bridesmaids). My most recent novel, The Stud Book, is now out (Hogarth Books, April 2013) and doing great." (From monicadrake.com)

* * *

We also send warm thanks to all the fine writers who entered this year, and a special congratulations to all our finalists:

• Michael Pearce
• Susan Lowell
• Heather Aruffo
• &
• Ashish Kaul

More winners!

Tammy Delatorre, Winner of the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction

Freesia McKee, Winner of the Patricia Goedicke Prize for Poetry

Tammy Delatorre's "I Am Coming for You" takes this summer's Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction!

We are thrilled to announce that Tammy Delatorre's "I Am Coming for You" is this year's winner in the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, chosen by Sarah Gerard. Congratulations! 

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In addition to a $500 prize, Delatorre's winning work will appear in CutBank 89, our summer 2018 issue.

Tammy Delatorre lives in Los Angeles. Her writing has received numerous literary awards, including the Payton Prize and the Slippery Elm Prose Prize. More of her essays and stories can be found at www.tammydelatorre.com.

Follow Delatorre on Twitter @tammydelatorre,  and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tammy.delatorre.1

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Judge Sarah Gerard had this to say about Delatorre's work: 

“I Am Coming for You” is a bloody, vivid, gut-wrenching account of inherited violence, abandonment, and reckoning. It’s the kind of story that demands to be told in spite of, or maybe because of, the courage it takes to write it. Rage and sadness pulse through it like a heartbeat through an umbilical cord.

Judge Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, the novel Binary Star, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times first fiction prize, and two chapbooks, most recently BFF. Her short stories, essays, interviews, and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, Granta, The Baffler, Vice, BOMB Magazine, and other journals, as well as anthologies. She’s been supported by fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Tin House, PlatteForum, Ucross, and Pocoapoco. She writes a monthly column for Hazlitt and teaches writing in New York City.

* * *

We also send warm thanks to all the fine nonfiction authors who entered this year, and a special congratulations to all our finalists:

• Melissa Connelly
• Charlotte Gullick
• Kristin Keane
  &
• Jacquelyn Connelly

More winners!

J. Matthew Gottwig, Winner of the Montana Prize in Fiction

Freesia McKee, Winner of the Patricia Goedicke Prize for Poetry

We have a winner! Freesia McKee and her poem "What Isn't Dead" take the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry!

We are thrilled to announce that Freesia McKee's "What Isn't Dead" is this year's winner in the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, chosen by Sarah Vap. Congratulations, Freesia! 

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Freesia McKee is author of the chapbook How Distant the City (Headmistress Press, 2017). Her words have appeared in cream city review, The Feminist Wire, Painted Bride Quarterly, Gertrude, and the Ms. Magazine Blog. Freesia's poetry is forthcoming in CALYX, Sinister Wisdom, and Nimrod.

In addition to a $500 prize, McKee's winning work will appear in CutBank 89, our summer 2018 issue.

Find Freesia McKee on Twitter: @freesiamckee
At Instagram: @freesiamckee
And at https://freesiamckee.wordpress.com/

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Judge Sarah Vap had this to say about McKee's work: 

In "What Isn't Dead," Freesia McKee layers the speaker's memory of a beloved (and themself at the time of that loving) as it is both hijacked and buoyed by the old and new systems of kindness and cruelty—chivalry, family, a 4th of July party that hurts, the strip club next door to their gay bar—until at the end my heart aches for them, confused (as they are?) by their final moment together—the moment's victory/failure at kindness, for everyone involved."

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Sarah Vap, our Fall 2017 Distinguished Hugo Writer, is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Viability (Penguin 2016), which was selected for the National Poetry Series. Her book of hybrid poetics, End of the Sentimental Journey, inaugurated the Infidel Poetics Series with Noemi Press (2013). She is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for poetry and has taught at Arizona State University, University of Southern California, and Drew University.

* * *

We also send warm thanks to all the fine poets who entered this year, and a special congratulations to all our finalists:

• John Blair
• Isabel Estrada
• Partridge Boswell
  &
• Brittney Scott

* * *

More winners coming soon for the Montana prizes in fiction and nonfiction!

Big Sky, Small Prose Contest: And the winners are...

BIG Congratulations to Allie Mariano, winner of this year's Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest, for her 1st place piece, "Water."

Here's what our judge, Zach VandeZande, had to say:

What drew me most to "Water" was its sense of wonder in the midst of tragedy. The best fiction offers us a way to make sense of the world, as in it creates for us the real on the story's own terms, and in doing so gives us a reason to hope. "Water," with its images and with its lyrical prose, does this effortlessly, and I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with it. I think you will be too.

Allie Mariano lives in New Orleans. Her writing has appeared in Saw Palm, Day One, and in New Orleans’ Times-Picayune. She is the nonfiction editor for Midway Journal. She is working on a novel, and she’s happy to be here.

Congrats also to our awesome runners up:

"A Posture of Grace" by Kim McCrea

"Holding His Fire" by Daryl Scroggins

We'll have more info soon, but we couldn't wait to shout out the news! 

Deadline Alert! CutBank contests and regular submissions closing soon!

Our Montana prizes in fiction and CNF, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry are closing the submissions window in 1 day and nine hours from now! Finish up with the red pen, finalize those entries and get them to us before it's too late!

Regular print submissions are winding up, too. Only 2 days and 9 big hours left.

Our submissions calendar is here, with links to all the info you need, and here's our Submittable portal when you're ready to rock.

Douglas Adams may be awesome, but even he might have said, "Hey. Don't be this guy."

CutBank is the proud sponsor of a variety of contests encouraging (and rewarding) fine writing in all genres, with opportunities including the Montana Prize in Fiction, the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry, the Big Sky, Small Prose Flash Contest, as well as our annual CutBank Chapbook Contest.

We're looking for work that showcases an authentic voice, an original perspective, and a willingness to push against the boundaries of form.

Meet this year's judges:

The Montana Prize in Fiction
Judged by Monica Drake

Meet Monica Drake: "I have an MFA from the University of Arizona and teach at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. My debut Novel, Clown Girl, is published by the amazing indie press, Hawthorne Books, and has won an Eric Hoffer Award as well as an IPPY. It’s been translated into Italian, and recently optioned for film by the brilliant Kristen Wiig (SNL, Bridesmaids). My most recent novel, The Stud Book, is now out (Hogarth Books, April 2013) and doing great." (From monicadrake.com)

The Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction
Judged by Sarah Gerard

Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, the novel Binary Star, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times first fiction prize, and two chapbooks, most recently BFF. Her short stories, essays, interviews, and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, Granta, The Baffler, Vice, BOMB Magazine, and other journals, as well as anthologies. She’s been supported by fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Tin House, PlatteForum, Ucross, and Pocoapoco. She writes a monthly column for Hazlitt and teaches writing in New York City.

The Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry
Judged by Sarah Vap

Sarah Vap, our Fall 2017 Distinguished Hugo Writer, is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Viability (Penguin 2016), which was selected for the National Poetry Series. Her book of hybrid poetics, End of the Sentimental Journey, inaugurated the Infidel Poetics Series with Noemi Press (2013). She is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for poetry and has taught at Arizona State University, University of Southern California, and Drew University.

Contest Deadlines Extended!

Deadlines extended!

The Montana Prizes in fiction and nonfiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize for poetry now open until JANUARY 31!

Visit our Submittable page for details, and give that entry another round of polish with the extra time.

Good luck--we're eager to read your work!

CutBank's Annual Chapbook Contest Opens Jan 1!

The submission window is open from Jan 1 to March 31. (And you know deadlines always come sooner than you think.)

Winner, 2016: little violences
by Raven Jackson
Purchase a copy here.

What's at stake if you drag your feet too long? Money, for one thing! Our winner receives $1000, high-quality publication of their book, and 25 contributor copies. Runners up enjoy publication and copies, as well, and every entry can look forward to a copy of CutBank 89 upon its release in spring/summer 2018.

You'll find solid info and full details on our Contests page, and while you're at it, visit our winners from last year right here.

In a nutshell:

Here's James D'Agostino, last year's winner with Weathermanic. Doesn't James look happy? You could be that happy, too!

• We're looking for 25-40 pages of original poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction by a single author. (Translations are not eligible for this award. Sorry.)
• Previously published stand-alone pieces or excerpts may be included in a manuscript, but the manuscript as a whole must be an unpublished work.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine!
• Manuscripts should be cohesive and coherent; in other words, your manuscript should resonate and make sense as a book.

Send us startling, compelling, and beautiful original work. We’re interested in both prose and poetry – and particularly work that straddles the lines between genres, in a fresh, powerful manuscript. Perhaps yours will overtake us quietly, gracefully defy genres, or satisfyingly subvert our expectations. Maybe it will punch us in the mouth page in and page out!

Now that 2017 is gasping for air, hang in there--2018 can be your year!

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates. We'll let you know when the gates are open or the deadline's approaching, so have your most amazing work ready!

CUTBANK'S 2018 GENRE CONTESTS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!

CutBank is thrilled to announce our 2018 genre contests in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry are open for submissions from Thursday, November 9th through January 15th, 2018. 

The Montana Prize in Fiction, the Montana Prize in Nonfiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry seek to highlight work that showcases authentic voice, boldness of form, and a rejection of functional fixedness. We are excited and privileged to have as this year's guest judges the incredible talents of Monica Drake (@Monica_Drake) for the fiction category, Sarah Gerard (@SarahNumber4) judging nonfiction, and a poetry judge to be announced soon.

One winner in each genre, as chosen by our guest judges, will receive a $500 award and publication in CutBank 89, our summer 2018 issue. All submissions will be considered for print publication, and all entrants receive a one-year subscription to CutBank. Visit our contest page for more info, and you can also find A-Z guidelines on our Submittable page.

Keep an eye on @cutbankonline and CutBank's Facebook page for more info on our judges and for future announcements!

Flash Prose Contest Submissions are now open!

Big Sky, Small Prose: A CutBank Flash Prose Exclusive

CutBank Literary Magazine is seeking interesting, compelling fiction and nonfiction prose - in 750 words or fewer. Lyric essays, prose poems, short essays, vignettes - send us your best, most dazzling short form prose. Please feel free to include original photography or art.

Big Sky, Small Prose will be judged by David Gates, author of A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me (2015), The Wonders of the Invisible World (1999), Preston Falls (1998), and Jernigan (1991), a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gates also teaches at the University of Montana and the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Contest Submission Guidelines:

• Submissions will be accepted through the Submittable submission manager. Print or email submissions will not be considered. Please include a brief cover letter, biography and contact information in the form provided - please do not include identifying information in the body of your submission.
• Submissions must be previously unpublished.
• Simultaneous submissions are certainly welcome; however, please withdraw your CutBank submission immediately via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere.
• Submissions should be double spaced, no more than 750 words.
• Submission fee of $7 includes consideration for CutBank's $500 flash prose prize and publication in CutBank 84. Two runners-up will be awarded $50 and publication in CutBank 84. All other submissions will be considered with submissions for the print edition of CutBank Literary Magazine. Submissions including photography or art will be considered for the CutBank 84 center spread.
• We will accept submissions for Big Sky, Small Prose between August 10 and September 1, 2015.

Click here to submit to Big Sky, Small Prose. 

Chapbook Contest Winner

We're so excited to announce the winner of our annual Chapbook contest! The top prize goes to Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, who blew us all away with his prose submission, Low Village. 

We'll also be publishing the fantastic poetry manuscripts of our two runners-up:

From by Jill Osier

book of lake by Nicholas Gulig

We received a record amount of submissions this year and were amazed by the quality of the work. Here are our finalists and semi-finalists for each genre:

Poetry Finalists

Elkopocalypse by Adrian Kien

The Math of Gifts that are Not Wages by Heidi Nilsson

Tent City by Kate Partridge

Fail Casing the Namemachine by Victoria Sanz

Her Aversion by Alison Strub

Poetry Semi-finalists

Dead Year by Anne Cecelia Holmes

Contestant by Emily Koehn

Heard Among the Windbreak by Cal Freeman

Then-Wife by Kate Colby

Some Birds by John Bonanni

Prose Finalists

Sons and Other Strangers by Nina Boutsikaris

Adventures in Property Management by Chelsea Werner-Jatzke

Fly Back at Me (A Fragmented Childhood) by Bernard Grant

Repast: Essays on Food, History, and Self by Vivian Wagner

Three Artists in Arrested Time: Tiempo Detenido by Gail Wilson Kenna

Prose Semi-finalists

Delusions of Grandeur (Not Delusions, I’m Fucking Grand): Notes from the Desk of John Wayne by Kayla Miller

The Apprentice by Sandra Worsham

subterranean by Anthony DeGregorio

We by Laura Distelheim

What is Reflected by Susan Rukeyser

We'll feature more information about our winners in the coming weeks. You're going to love these books!