Steve Almond: Fiction
Abigail Thomas: Nonfiction
Kim Addonizio: Poetry
Congratulations to all the 2008 Fellowship winners!
Winner: Margot Wizansky, Brookline, MA, for "Cosmography"
About "Cosmography," Ms. Addonizio had the following comments:
"The author of 'Cosmography' has a gift for narrative and for language which creates an experience of lived life for the reader. I admired this writer's ability to convincingly render the voice of an eighteenth-century midwife in the ambitious opening poem. Like the description of a steak in 'Breakfast at the Retirement Home,' the writing here is often 'luscious, blood-rare.' "1st Honorable Mention: Keegan Goodman, Chicago, IL, for "Four Poems ('Residence' and others)"
About "Four Poems: ("Residence" and others):
2nd Honorable Mention: Daniel Johnson, Cambridge, MA, for "To Catch a Falling Knife" and other poems
"From an autobiography written by a dead man to a woman attempting to construct human beings out of grease fat and coffee grounds, these prose poems create their own marvelous and off-kilter worlds."About "To Catch a Falling Knife" and other poems:
"Spare, smart poems that contained wonderful moments of surprise. I especially loved '1 a.m.,' a little gem of notation."
Winner: Ben Roberts, Ogden, UT, for "The Three Nephites"
About "The Three Nephites," Mr. Almond had this to say:
"My God. I was absolutely blown away by this story, which does what every great short story must: it creates its own world and sucks the reader into that world and horrifies us and at the same time (and this is the miracle, I think) makes us never want to leave. The voice is absolutely fearless, ecstatic, and dangerously wise. I could feel my heart thumping as I read the last line, and for a long time after."1st Honorable Mention: Tatjana Soli, Tustin, CA, for "The Sweet and the Salt"
About "The Sweet and the Salt":
"This story broke my heart. It's awfully hard to write about people who are so disenfranchised and make it feel real, but this story does so in a way that feels effortless. The fear and the pain and, above that, the courage and resilience of the narrator shook me up, in precisely the way I want a story too. I was reminded of the work of Daniel Mason and Zora Neale Hurston."2nd Honorable Mention: Julia Gibson, Los Angeles, CA, for "Coydogs"
About "Coydogs":
"If you'd told me I had to read a story narrated by a coyote, I'd fear the worst. But this was astonishing. It creates its own vocabulary and manages to feel incredibly realistic, and moving. This is a story about independence and survival, the price of strength, and it's more human than 99.9 percent of the stories I read that are actually about humans. I was enthralled."Mr. Almond also singled out Anne Elliott's "Bark" and Erica Lorraine's "Something More" for special mention.
Winner: Valerie Due, San Diego, CA, for "The Skinning Board"
About "The Skinning Board," Ms. Thomas has the following comments:
"I love the emotional restraint coupled with the ravishing prose of the piece. It serves so perfectly the young narrator whose initiation into the harsh realities of life--and death--on a farm is being presented here."1st Honorable Mention: Dickson Lam, Oakland, CA, for "Ba ba"
2nd Honorable Mention: Monica Jacobe, Washington, DC, for "Pieces of Her"