Results of the 2019 Summer Prize

in Fiction and Poetry

We’d like to thank everyone who submitted to our inaugural Summer Prize in Fiction and Poetry. Without you, this would not have been possible, and we are grateful for your participation and trust in our journal. Please join us in congratulating the winners, runner-ups, and finalists of the 2019 Summer Prize!

Winner of the 2019 Fiction Prize selected by Ramona Ausubel:

“The Pig Queen” by Sheldon Costa

Ramona Ausubel says, “’The Pig Queen’ delighted me with its strangeness and discomfort coupled with precise imagery and funny lines.”

Runner-Up of the 2019 Fiction Prize selected by Ramona Ausubel:

“Structural Report” by Debbie Vance

Ramona Ausubel says, “’Structural Report’ is also full of surprises and very thought provoking.”

Finalists:

“Hannah Vechter and the Mockup Man” by Robert Long Foreman
“The Beasts are All Around” by Laura Price Steele
“Renewal” by Adam Byko
“The Witch’s Tooth” by Kate Felix
“The Blessing of the Animals” by Caitlin Rae Taylor
“Euphony” by Natalie Villacorta

Winner of the 2019 Poetry Prize selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil:

“My Mother Tries to Teach Me How to Garden” by Hannah Dow

Aimee Nezhukumatathil says, “This poem demonstrates how a whole life can be unearthed in the fecundity of a garden. So much richness found in these stanzas, especially in the turning over of word origins, all for it ending with a magnificent last sentence that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about for days.”

Runner-Up of the 2019 Poetry Prize selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil:

“mountains before mountains were mothers” by Aimee Herman

Aimee Nezhukumatathil says, “This poem’s heartbeat resides in the thrum of its footnotes, fastening bright connections between the “mathematics of your body” and the body as landscape in unexpected and elegant ways.”

Finalists:

“I looked up one day” by Matthew Baker
“Body” by Alana Baum
“The Water, the Truth, the Water” by Stacey Balkun
“Agoraphobia” by Janine Certo
“Only Once Driving in Cincinnati” by Kirk Schlueter
“Rapids” by Tyler Dettloff
“The Wolf as Pick-up Artist” by Emily Cole
“I wrapped the animals I skinned around your hands and neck” by Jacob Lindberg

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Thank you all again for your wonderful work. Be sure to keep an eye out for our Winter Issue 43.2 to read these winning works! 

*Banner art:  from Gabriel Silva’s “Gold 1”, which appears in Issue 42.2 of Cream City Review.