Emerging Writer's Contest, and Other Awards

Since 1971, Ploughshares has been committed to promoting the work of up-and-coming writers. In the spirit of the magazine’s founding mission, the Emerging Writer’s Contest honors work by authors who are just beginning to publish and have yet to receive widespread recognition. The contest was limited to fiction this year. Next year, we will be giving separate Emerging Writer awards for both prose and poetry.

The contest was judged this year by Ploughshares founding editor DeWitt Henry, with the winners and runners-up chosen from five hundred entries, many of them excellent. The author of the winning story will receive $500 and be published in the Winter 2011-2012 issue, guest-edited by Alice Hoffman.

Winner:

“The Gospel of Blackbird,” by Thomas Lee

Runner-Up:

“You’re So Normal I Could Scream,” by Rebecca Leece

Honorable Mentions:

“A Gap in the Flashing,” by Maria Robinson

“The Stillness that Waits,” by David Meischen

More Awards

Our congratulations to the following Ploughshares writers, whose work will be honored in these upcoming anthologies.

The Pushcart Prize

Sandra Leong’s story “We Don’t Deserve This,” from the Fall 2010 issue edited by Jim Shepherd, and Joy Katz’s poem “December, Fever,” from the Winter 2010-11 issue edited by Terrance Hayes, have been selected for The Pushcart Prize XXXVI: Best of the Small Presses, which will be published by Bill Henderson’s Pushcart Press in November 2011.

The Best American Poetry

Katha Pollitt’s “Angels” and Bridget Lowe’s “The Pilgrim Is Bridled and Bespectacled,” both from the Spring 2010 issue edited by Elizabeth Strout, will be included in The Best American Poetry 2011. The anthology is due out September 2011 from Scribner, with Kevin Young as guest editor and David Lehman as the series editor.