Previous Contests

2019: Fiction / Nonfiction

Judge: Carmen Maria Machado
Deborah Jackson Taffa – Kiva Song
Lilly Dancyger – Negative Space
Joseph Holt – Your Nightmare

No posts found.

2019: The 2040 Books James Alan McPherson Prize

Judge: Gish Jen
Christina Chiu – Beauty

Beauty<br /><span class="booktitle">Christina Chiu</span>

Beauty
Christina Chiu

“Christina Chiu’s Beauty is beautiful in the way of a scalpel blade. It’s that sharp and precise, that lacerating, that ...
Read More

2018: The 2040 Books James Alan McPherson Prize

Judge: Mat Johnson
Bonnie Chau – All Roads Lead to Blood

All Roads Lead To Blood
Bonnie Chau

Unflinching and compelling portrayals of desire fill this award-winning story collection, moving back and forth between California and New York, ...
Read More

2017: Fiction / Nonfiction

Judge: Benjamin Percy
Wendy Fox – If the Ice Had Held
Doug Crandell – Tornado Season
Kate Wisel – Driving in Cars With Homeless Men

If the Ice Had Held<br /><span class="booktitle">Wendy J. Fox</span>

If the Ice Had Held
Wendy J. Fox

“Razor-sharp “…written with incredible grace and assurance. I gave myself over to this story and felt as though I had ...
Read More

2015: Fiction / Nonfiction

Judge: Emily St. John Mandel

Winners

A.A. Balaskovits – Magic for Unlucky Girls
Elizabeth Horneber – Chinese Red
Lisa Reisman – 5 Months 10 Years 2 Hours

Magic For Unlucky Girls<br /><span class="booktitle">A.A. Balaskovits</span>

Magic For Unlucky Girls
A.A. Balaskovits

"That rarest of things: A book that doesn't remind me of anything else I've read. A wonderful, truly original work." ...
Read More

5 Months 10 Years 2 Hours <br /><span class="booktitle">Lisa Reisman</span>

5 Months 10 Years 2 Hours
Lisa Reisman

When a disillusioned New York attorney decides to leave the law, buy a convertible, and hit the road, she doesn't ...
Read More

2013: Nonfiction

Judge: Lee Gutkind

Annita Sawyer — Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass
Allen Gee — My Chinese America
Mary Quade — Ideal Uncertainties

My Chinese-America<br /><span class="booktitle">Allen Gee</span>

My Chinese-America
Allen Gee

"Masculinity, mobility, history, and the American dream of equality all take their turn under Gee’s lens, as he shrewdly navigates ...
Read More

Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass<br /><span class="booktitle">Dr. Annita Perez Sawyer</span>

Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass
Dr. Annita Perez Sawyer

What would lead a lively, high-achieving teenager to shrivel into a dark, inaudible wraith dedicated to her own destruction? How ...
Read More

2013: Fiction

Judge: David Morrell

April L. Ford — The Poor Children
Daniel Mueller — Nights I Dreamed of Hubert Humphrey
Stephen Eoannou — Muscle Cars

Nights I Dreamed of Hubert Humphrey<br /><span class="booktitle">Daniel Mueller</span>

Nights I Dreamed of Hubert Humphrey
Daniel Mueller

Nights I Dreamed of Hubert Humphrey About the Book: Eleven stories by the author of the critically-acclaimed HOW ANIMALS MATE ...
Read More

Muscle Cars<br /><span class="booktitle">Stephen G. Eoannou</span>

Muscle Cars
Stephen G. Eoannou

"Eoannou proves masterful at revealing that razor’s edge inside everyday American man." ...
Read More

2011: Fiction/nonfiction

Judge: Alan Cheuse

Lance Larsen — Seventeen Ways to Float
Angie Chuang — The Four Words for Home
Emily Stone — In Search of Chocola: Love, Chocolate, and Language in Guatemala

The Four Words for Home<br /><span class="booktitle">Angie Chuang</span>

The Four Words for Home
Angie Chuang

The Four Words For Home About the Book: Angie Chuang takes on an assignment to "find the human face of ...
Read More

2011: Poetry

Judge: Rose Solari

Winners

Jude Nutter – untitled selection
Katie Schmid – The Heaven and The Hangover
Charles Atkinson – untitled selection

2010

Judge: Robert Olen Butler

Winners

Tara Laskowski –Black Diamond City
Nicole Louise Reid – A Purposeful Violence
W.A. Smith – Einstein’s Fiddle

Screenplay Awards Grand Prizewinner: John Bengel – The Voyeur

Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons <br /><span class="booktitle">Tara Laskowski</span>

Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons
Tara Laskowski

The best-selling indie hit returns with an all new revised and expanded edition! ...
Read More

Bystanders<br /><span class="booktitle"> Tara Laskowski

Bystanders
Tara Laskowski

"Laskowski’s collection will be welcomed by readers who care about witnessing the significant rather than the spectacular." ...
Read More

2009

Judge: Pagan Kennedy

Winners

Matthew Pitt – Listening for Life
Nicole Louise Reid – This One Last Thing
Adam Sturtevant – Ease Chest Tuck Hid Debt Art

Attention Please Now: Stories <br /><span class="booktitle">Matthew Pitt</span>

Attention Please Now: Stories
Matthew Pitt

Attention Please Now About the Book: The characters in Matthew Pitt's debut short story collection strive to blend into the ...
Read More

So There!<br /><span class="booktitle">Nicole Louise Reid</span>

So There!
Nicole Louise Reid

So There! About the Book: With the graceful lyricism of a musician’s ear, the stories of So There! inhabit the ...
Read More

2007

Judge: Robert Olen Butler

Winners

Jacob Appel – Natural Selection
Genaro Smith – Dailies
Katherine Crawford – Deep Breathing Under Big Sky

The Biology of Luck<br /><span class="booktitle">Jacob M. Appel</span>

The Biology of Luck
Jacob M. Appel

The Biology of Luck About the Book: Odd-job queen Starshine Hart is about to go on somebody else’s perfect date ...
Read More

Keowee Valley<br /><span class="booktitle">Katherine Scott Crawford</span>

Keowee Valley
Katherine Scott Crawford

Keowee Valley About the Book: She journeyed into the wilderness to find a kidnapped relative. She stayed to build a ...
Read More

2005

Judge: Ayun Halliday

Winners

Anna Green – Brown Jesus
Michael Kardos – Mr. Marotta’s Ashes Have the Personality of a Grouchy Old Man and One Last Good Time
Jeff Fearnside – Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air

Before He Finds Her<br /><span class="booktitle">Michael Kardos</span>

Before He Finds Her
Michael Kardos

Everyone in town knows the story: Ramsey Miller threw a blowout block party, then murdered his wife and daughter. But ...
Read More

2004

Judge: Richard Currey

Winners

Bethany Harvey – Falling Rock
Joseph M. Schuster – A Saint in the Family
Whitney Purvis – Cuentitos Caoticos

The Might Have Been<br /><span class="booktitle"> Joe Schuster</span>

The Might Have Been
Joe Schuster

Full of passion, ambition, and possibility, The Might Have Been maps the profound and unpredictable moments that change our lives ...
Read More

2002

Judge: Chris Offutt

Winners

Kenneth Cook – Last Call: The Texas Moon Stories
Cate McGowan – Thirty Men, Not One
Emily Raboteau – A Gesture of Belonging
W.A. Smith – Leaving and Girls, Past

The Professor's Daughter: A Novel<br /><span class="booktitle"> Emily Raboteau</span>

The Professor’s Daughter: A Novel
Emily Raboteau

In exhilarating prose, The Professor's Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family, contested territory that gives rise to rage, ...
Read More

Sons of Their Fathers: A Novella & Twelve Stories<br /><span class="booktitle">W. A. Smith</span>

Sons of Their Fathers: A Novella & Twelve Stories
W. A. Smith

Sons of Their Fathers focuses sharply on the relationships between fathers and sons and the power of love and redemption ...
Read More

Last Call: Stories<br /><span class="booktitle"> K. L. Cook</span>

Last Call: Stories
K. L. Cook

Last Call About the Book: In this tenth anniversary edition of K. L. Cook’s debut collection, the linked stories of ...
Read More

2001

Judge: Jayne Anne Phillips

Winners

Charlotte Gullick – By Way of Water
Kate Small – The B-Zone Open
Patricia Schaefer – Love Is Blue
Haruko Yamauchi – Witness

By Way of Water<br /><span class="booktitle">Charlotte Gullick</span>

By Way of Water
Charlotte Gullick

"By Way of Water is a work of exquisite beauty." ...
Read More

2000

Richard Currey

Judge: Richard Currey

Winners

Mary L. Tabor – The Burglar: Stories
Maureen P. Stanton – Laundry
Carson H Wu – Different Brothers
Ira Sukrungruang – A Normal Thai Son

Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy<br /><span class="booktitle">Ira Sukrungruang</span>

Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy
Ira Sukrungruang

Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy About the Book: On one side of the door, the rich smell of ...
Read More

Woman Who Never Cooked: Stories<br /><span class="booktitle">Mary L. Tabor</span>

Woman Who Never Cooked: Stories
Mary L. Tabor

The Woman Who Never Cooked About the Book: The Woman Who Never Cooked is Mary's collection of linked short stories ...
Read More