Sunday, September 16, 2012

Cider Press Review Editor's Prize

I'm pleased to announce--no, actually I'm ecstatic--that my manuscript "My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass" will be published by Cider Press Review after winning their inaugural Editor's Prize. The day that Ruth Foley, managing editor of the press, called me with the news I was speechless, stunned with joy. And I'm still celebrating.

Congratulations, too, to the runner-up and honorable mentions:

      Runner-Up:
           Snow White, When No One Was Looking, Donna Prinzmetal

      Honorable Mentions:
           The Green Cup, V. P. Loggins
           The Principle of Flickering, Laura Donnelly
           Planetary Nights, Jeanne J. LeVasseur

My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass will be released in the fall of 2013.

I've followed the recent history of the press and admire so much the work that they're doing, the authors that they are publishing. I had the pleasure of hearing Landon Godfrey, author of Second-Skin Rhinestone-Spangled Nude Souffle Choffon Gown, read last fall; I've enjoyed reading Liz Robbins's Play Button; and I fell for the poetry of Joseph Fasano, author of Fugue for Other Hands, when he won the Rattle Poetry Prize a few years ago. Landon, Liz, and Joseph are all past winners of the Cider Press Book Award.

If you're not familiar with this press, please do check it out:

Cider Press Review website

Finalists for the Cider Press Review Editor's Prize

For the inaugural Cider Press Review Editor's Prize, eight finalists were selected in August from the hundreds of manuscripts submitted. Here is the list, alphabetically, and I'm pleased that my manuscript My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass was included:

     After Jay
     The Green Cup
     My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass
     On the Desire to Levitate
     Planetary Nights
     The Principle of Flickering
     Significant Others
     Snow White, When No One Was Looking


I'm grateful, too, that my manuscript has been a finalist in several other book contests during the three years that I've circulated it. During that time it has also been a semifinalist for The Washington Prize (Word Works) and the Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award, as well as a finalist for these:

     The National Poetry Series
     Prairie Schooner Prize in Poetry
     Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry
     Cider Press Book Award

Circulating a manuscript is hard work, and I want to thank these presses/contests for their encouragement along the way.