John Blair
2014 TUSCULUM REVIEW FICTION PRIZE WINNER
Judge Sara Pritchard has selected “Biggest Snake in the Woods” by John Blair of San Marcos, Texas as winner of our 2014 prize in fiction. “Biggest Snake in the Woods,” for which Blair will receive a $1,000 cash prize, will appear in TTR vol. 10/2014.
Of Blair’s story, Pritchard says: “It’s well plotted and paced. Gritty. Ugly. Good use of backstory, dialogue, characterization, setting. Lots of economy, never overwritten. Just well written, moving smoothly between scene and summary. Fine ambiguity in the ending. Kind of Hemingway’s Nick Adams meets James Dickey’s inbreds. Yeah.”
Blair’s short story collection, American Standard, was the 2002 winner of the Drue Heinz Literature prize and was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. He’s also published two books of poetry, The Occasions of Paradise (U. Tampa Press, 2012) and The Green Girls (LSU Press/Pleiades Press 2003). He is a professor in English Department at Texas State University, where he directs the undergraduate creative writing program.
Fiction Prize Finalists
“Bandana” by Tom Howard of Arlington, Virginia
“How the Mammoth’s Blood Flows” by Denton Loving of Speedwell, Tennessee
“Gar Holes of This World” by Lyn Veach Sadler of Pittsboro, North Carolina
“Paper Boats” by Caroline Wilkinson of Knoxville, Tennessee
Cynthia Shwartzberg Edlow
2014 TUSCULUM REVIEW POETRY PRIZE WINNER
Judge Jericho Brown has selected “The Timekeeper” by Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow of Gilbert, Arizona as winner of our 2014 prize in poetry. “The Timekeeper,” for which Edlow will receive a $1,000 cash prize, will appear in TTR vol. 10/2014.
Edlow’s debut poetry collection is The Day Judge Spencer Learned the Power of Metaphor. She is the 2012 Red Hen Press Poetry Award Winner, for her poem “Super Dan Comics Question Box Series # 18.” The poem appears in The Los Angeles Review, No.14, 2013. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared widely in numerous journals, including The American Poetry Review, ACM, Cimarron Review, Gulf Coast, American Literary Review, Barrow Street, Folio, Smartish Pace, The Tusculum Review and Galatea Resurrects.
Poetry Prize Finalists
“Identifying Angles” by Gail Giewont of North Chesterfield, Virginia
“Comfort” by Jed Myers of Seattle, Washington
“Requiem for Monogamy” by Chris Vogt-Hennessy of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania