News
Congrats to Noreen Graf! Her story "After Matters" was selected as runner-up in the Chester B. Himes Memorial Fiction Prize which was selected by the writer May Cobb. It will be published soon in The Ocotillo Review.
Congrats to Andrés Torres Scott. His short story was published in the Spanish language app iPstori.
You can read it or listen to a dramatized reading. Enjoy:
"Cuando alguien se va": https://ipstori.app.link/tbWOiRgyNlb
MFA candidate Noreen Graf (who also just happens to be a full prof in the UTRGV Rehab & Counseling Dept) got a comic published today in this high-profile website: https://www.politicalirony.com/ Go check it out!
Congratulations to Rodney Gomez for winning the Discovery Prize in Poetry for Ceremony of Sand, published by YesYes Books in 2019. His latest collection Geographic Tongue (Pleiades Press Visual Poetry Series 2020) will be released in a few weeks. Congrats, Rodney!
Poetry
Winner:
The Tiny Journalist : Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye
Finalists:
The Last Visit by Chad Abushanab
I Will Destroy You: Poems by Nick Flynn
Another Last Day by Alex Lemon
Newsworthy: Poems by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
Discovery Prize Winner:
Ceremony of Sand: Poems by Rodney Gomez
http://www.writersleague.org/229/2019-Book-Award-Winners--Finalists
The Before Columbus Foundation announces the Winners of the Forty-first Annual AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS. The 2020 American Book Award winners will be formally recognized on Sunday, October 25, 2020, from 2:00–3:30p.m., online.
"The American Book Awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. The purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions. There are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers. The award winners range from well-known and established writers to under-recognized authors and first works. There are no quotas for diversity, the winners list simply reflects it as a natural process. The Before Columbus Foundation views American culture as inclusive and has always considered the term “multicultural” to be not a description of various categories, groups, or “special interests,” but rather as the definition of all of American literature. The Awards are not bestowed by an industry organization, but rather are a writers’ award given by other writers." Here is a link to the announcement of all of this year's winners.
Fountain, Pérez named next Poets Laureate of Texas | Lone Star Literary Life
The Texas State Legislature, in partnership with the Texas Commission on the Arts, will make appointments on Monday, March 25, 2019 to the positions of state poet laureate, state musician, state two-dimensional artist, and state three-dimensional artist. www.lonestarliterary.comNational recognition - utrgvrider.com
Seven UTRGV students whose work was published in Gallery magazine have won eight national awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Britt Haraway, a creative writing assistant professor and Gallery adviser, explained the magazine is produced by students taking his English 3350 Gallery course.www.utrgvrider.com