Subscriber News: June 2017
Recent Honors
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter was a finalist in the 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards in the LGBTQ Fiction category for her novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016). This contest recognizes the best independent and self-published books in a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres. The most recent deadline was April 10.
Congratulations to Anna Scotti. Her poem "Tanager" won the 2017 Fischer Prize for Poetry from the Telluride Institute's Talking Gourds Poetry Program. The most recent deadline for this $1,000 award was April 22. Contest judge Chris Ransick, former Denver Poet Laureate, commented: "Here is a prose poem that works beautifully, which is rare. The poet has eschewed one key tool—the line break—and in place of that wielded precise imagery, musicality, insistent rhythm, surprise, and delight." She kindly shares it with us here. See a video of her reading the poem on her website.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Chesla. Her prose poem "Ectopia (Or, Tunnels of Love)" was selected by Ander Monson as a runner up in Quarter After Eight's 2016 Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest and was published in the spring issue. The most recent deadline for this contest with a prize of $1,008.15 was November 15.
Congratulations to Roberta George. Her essay "Remembering Albee" won second prize in the 2017 Porter Fleming Literary Competition sponsored by the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA. This contest gives prizes up to $1,000 for poetry, fiction, essays, and one-act plays by residents of the Southern US states; the most recent deadline was February 13. Roberta is the editor of Snake Nation Press. Visit their website for guidelines for their long-running contests for book-length manuscripts of poetry and fiction.
Congratulations to Janet Garber. Her debut novel, Dream Job: Wacky Adventures of an HR Manager, was a finalist in the First Novel (Under 60,000 Words) category of the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The most recent deadline for this contest for small press and self-published books, with $100 prizes in various genres, was February 17. Dream Job was also a runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie/Self-Published Book Competition, whose most recent deadline was October 1.
Congratulations to Madeleine McDonald. Her short story "Not My Children" won an honorable mention in the 2017 Roswell Award Short Science Fiction Writing Contest sponsored by Sci-Fest L.A. and Light Bringer Project. The most recent deadline for this $500 prize was March 3.
Congratulations to James Garrison. His novel QL 4 was published in May by TouchPoint Press and is available from Amazon.com in print and e-book editions. Set in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War, QL 4 is a story of intrigue, betrayal, and violence among soldiers on the same side in an unpopular war. Read his blog post on TouchPoint's website about the inspiration for the book and its title. In other news, his poem on immigration, "A Rising Tide", was recently awarded first place for poetry in the Houston Writers Guild contest, Out of Many, One—Celebrating Diversity, and was published by the HWG Press in an anthology titled Out of Many, One, released on April 28. Two other poems, "War of the Martins and Sparrows" and "A Dangerous World", received honorable mentions and are also included in the anthology. This contest gave prizes up to $100 for poetry, fiction, and essays; the most recent submission period was August 1-October 31. Read the winning poems on his website. Jim says, "I've enjoyed following Winning Writers over a number of years; the articles and other information have often proved helpful to my writing efforts. Keep up the good work!"
Recent Publications
Leah Angstman's poem about Marie Curie, "Ci", was published in the WordRunner e-chapbook anthology Pushing Boundaries, Breaking Barriers. (The curie, symbolized as "ci", is a unit of radioactivity.) Her poem about the Dakota Access Pipeline, "Miles from Standing Rock, tonight," was published in the Summer 2017 issue of Camas Magazine, a literary journal about the American West. She kindly shares it with us here.
Annie Dawid's story "Long Before Jonestown: Indianapolis, 1956" was published in May at Fictive Dream.
R.T. Castleberry's poem "Asleep in Jericho" was published on April 17, and "The Answer (Will Find You)" on May 12, at In Between Hangovers. Three more of his poems will appear on the site in May and June.
Ellaraine Lockie's poem "Monologue After the Moon" was published on May 22 on Beate Sigriddaughter's website Writing in a Woman's Voice, paired with Alexis Rhone Fancher's photo "Los Angeles Hangnail Moon". Mom Egg Review favorably reviewed the limited-edition poetry chapbook Folie à Quatre (Black Rune Press, 2016), an anthology of love poems by Lockie, Fancher, Francesca Bell, and valli poole. Reviewer Bunny Goodjohn wrote, "Folie à Quatre is a mixed media artwork that marries the innermost thoughts of women, rendered in perfectly honed and crafted words on the page, with photography. Folie à Quatre is the 'small box' that delivers the raw beauty of erotica and sexual love."
Published: June 8, 2017
