It is with admiration and delight that we announce the winners of the inaugural 2019 Book Awards. Category 1) (Author may have more than one book) was won by Barbara Crooker for The Book of Kells, and Category 2) (Author’s first book) was won by Grady Chambers for North American Stadiums. The author of the winning book in each category was awarded a prize of $500.
As we announce the winning books, we do so with gratitude to all the writers who submitted their fine books, and of course, our judging panel: Dan Brown, Moira Egan, Allison Joseph, Joshua Mehigan, and Marilyn Taylor.
Please join us in congratulating the winners and runners up.
Thank you again to all who helped make the contest’s inaugural year a success. May it continue!
BEST BOOK
FIRST PRIZE: The Book of Kells by Barbara Crooker
Barbara Crooker is the author of eight books of poetry, including Les Fauves (C&R Press, 2017). Radiance, her first book, won the 2005 Word Press First Book Award and was finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; Line Dance, her second book, won the Paterson Award for Excellence in Literature. Her writing has received a number of awards, including the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships. Her work appears in a variety of literary journals and anthologies, including Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and The Bedford Introduction to Literature, and has been read on The Writer’s Almanac and featured on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry.
Runners Up:
Echolocation by Sally Bliumis-Dunn
The Wounded for the Water by Matt W. Miller
BEST FIRST BOOK
FIRST PRIZE: North American Stadiums by Grady Chambers
Grady Chambers is the author of North American Stadiums (Milkweed Editions, 2018) selected by Henri Cole as the winner of the inaugural Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. His poems and stories have appeared in or are forthcoming from The Paris Review, Kenyon Review Online, Ploughshares, Joyland, Boulevard, and elsewhere. Grady was born and raised in Chicago. He is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow, and lives in Philadelphia.
Runner Up: Mosaic of the Dark by Lisa Dordal