Pushcart Prize Winner

Named among the most influential projects in the history of American publishing by Publishers Weekly, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, is one of the most selective and coveted literary prizes in the U.S. Small literary magazines like ours nominate their best fiction, nonfiction, and poetry of the year. There are thousands of entries from publishers and the competition is steep.

We are thrilled to announce that one of our nominees is a winner! Ron Riekki’s poem, “Finland,” from our fall 2020 edition was chosen for inclusion in the next edition of the Pushcart anthology scheduled to be published in November.

We would also like to mention our other Pushcart nominees for their terrific work: Ashanya Lingam, for her short story, “The Recruiter,” and Sharon Kennedy-Nolle for her poem, “603 Uniondale Avenue.” Congratulations to all of you on your outstanding writing, and a special congrats to Ron on this very special honor. We invite all our readers to look back at these wonderful pieces.

And once again, our current issue offers a terrific lineup for you. Our prose selection is Richard Spilman’s “Where the House Was,” in which a protagonist’s preoccupation with history overlaps with his search for identity and belonging.

Kicking off our poetry section is Alita Prokopf’s “Season of Thunder,” a literal and metaphorical reference to our times. David Doran’s evocative sequence of short poems suggests ways of looking at nature and history. We have a wealth of other poems we are excited to share—some by poets new to us, and some by known favorites who appeared in our issues in 2017 and 2018–Walter Bargen, Peycho Kanev, and Elizabeth Weir.

Be well, stay safe, help each other.
Leonard Lang, Senior Editor and Adrienne Pilon, Associate Editor

Contents

Prose

Richard Spilman
• Where the House Was

Poetry

Alita Pirkopf
• Thunder Season
• Michael Finnegan

David Doran
• February 
• History : Zero 
• History : February 
• History : One

Jane Rosenberg LaForge
• The Dance of the Little Death

 Elizabeth Weir
• Coming Home on a January Evening

 Peycho Kanev
• All the Pretty Things

 Walter Bargen
• After a Curious Detour Neither a Tragic nor Comic Performance

Toti O’Brien
• Time is of the Essence

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