Prairie Schooner was able to award 36 writing prizes totaling $19,000 for work published by established and emerging writers in 2020 and 2021, thanks to generous supporters of the literary arts.
The winner of the $1,500 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award in 2020 was Kim Coleman Foote of Brooklyn, New York, for her story “Family Tree,” published in the Fall 2020 issue. And the recipient of the Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award in 2021 was Andrew Furman of Boca Raton, Florida. for the essay “Quarantine,” published in the Summer 2021 issue. This award is made possible by the generosity of poet, publisher and philanthropist Glenna Luschei.
Janelle Williams, of New York City, received the $2,000 Lawrence Foundation Award for the best short story published in Prairie Schooner in 2020 with her story “From the Closest Waffle House” in the Spring 2020 issue. And the 2021 Lawrence Foundation Award was awarded to Asa Elko of Kents Hill, Maine, for the story “Sleeping with the Windows Open,” from the Winter 2021 issue. This prize is made possible by the Lawrence Foundation of New York City and its late director, Leonard S. Bernstein.
The $1,000 Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing was awarded to Tiffany Jiminez, of San Francisco, California, for the story “When the Radio Disappeared” in the Winter 2020 issue. Joseph Omoh Ndukwu of Lagos, Nigeria was the 2021 winner of the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing for his poem “The Animals Here,” published in Spring 2021. The Faulkner Award is supported by charitable contributions to honor Virginia Faulkner, former editor-in-chief of the University of Nebraska Press and Prairie Schooner fiction editor.
Ed Roberson, of Chicago, Illinois, won the 2020 Edward Stanley Award of $1,000 for his poem “Funny,” published in Spring 2020. And the recipient of the 2021 Edward Stanley Award was Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley of Duncansville, Pennsylvania, for her poem “My Name is Dawanyeno” from the Winter 2021 issue. This award is made possible through charitable contributions from the family of Edward Stanley, a member of the committee that founded Prairie Schooner in 1926.
The 2020 winner of the $500 Bernice Slote Award for the best work by a beginning writer was Madeline Kearin of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for her story “Mytholmroyd,” which appeared in the Spring 2020 issue. The 2021 Bernice Slote Award was awarded to Hannah Keziah Agustin of Manila, Philippines and Madison, Wisconsin, for the essay “Thrifted” in the Fall 2021 issue. The Slote Award is supported by the estate of Bernice Slote, who worked as a Prairie Schooner editor from 1963 to 1980.
The Annual Prairie Schooner Strousse Award of $500 for the best poem or group of poems for 2020 was awarded to Arthur Kayzakian of Burbank, California, for four poems in the Spring 2020 issue. The 2021 recipient of this award is Matthew Shenoda of Providence, Rhode Island, for five poems published in Summer 2021. The Strousse Award is given in honor of Flora Strousse.
Daisy Odey of Jos, Nigeria, won the 2020 Hugh J. Luke Award of $250 for her poem “Naming,” from the Winter 2020 issue. The 2021 Hugh J. Luke Award was awarded to Dawn Manning of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the poem “Gretel in the Wilderness,” from Winter 2021. The Hugh J. Luke Award was established in memory of Prairie Schooner’s editor from 1980 through 1987.
The $250 Jane Geske Award of 2020 was given to Anna Journey of Marina del Rey, California, for her poem “Phlebotomy with Meyer Lemons” from Fall 2020. And Patricia Spears Jones of New York City was the 2021 winner of the Jane Geske Award for the poem “That Spoonful”, published in the Winter 2021 issue. This award is provided by Norman Geske in honor of his wife, Jane Geske, a lifelong supporter of Nebraska’s literary arts.
10 writers in 2020 were awarded annual Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Awards for $250 each:
Itoro Bassey of Abuja, Nigeria and Southbridge, Massachusetts, for the story “To the Children Growing Up in the Aftermath of Their Parents’ War” from Spring 2020
Kareem Tayyar of Huntington Beach, California, for the poem “Visiting My Father in Iran” from Fall 2020
Neelanjana Banerjee of Los Angeles, for the story “I Find Myself Praying in Bed at Dawn” from Winter 2020
Janine Lim of Los Angeles, for the essay “Oratorio Imperata, An Obligation to Pray” from Winter 2020
Christina Cooke of New York City, for the essay “Cyaa Look Back” from Fall 2020
Kiki Petrosino of Charlottesville, Virginia, for the poem “Water Wheel /Mercy Prayer” from Winter 2020
Karen An-Hwei Lee of Wheaton, Illinois, for the poem “On a Lovefeast of Yesterdays” from Fall 2020
Wandeka Gayle of Atlanta, Georgia, for the story “Walker Woman” from Summer 2020
A. Molotkov, of Portland, Oregon, for the poem “The Melting Star” from Fall 2020
Chika Onyenezi of Houston, Texas, for the story “House of a Thousand Voices” from Fall 2020
10 writers in 2021 were awarded annual Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Awards for $250 each:
Brennan Bestwick of the Flint Hills of Kansas for the poem “Let Us Pray” from Summer 2021
Hazem Fahmy of New York City, for the poem “At the Door to the Conference, I Beg the White Guard to Let Me In” from Spring 2021
Cherie Nelson of Fort Collins, Colorado, for the essay “God Stars” from Fall 2021
Colwill Brown, of Austin, Texas, for the poem “Inheritance | Locks” from Summer 2021
Michael P. Williams of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the essay “Goodbye Monkey Mountain” from Summer 2021
Marilyn Hacker of New York City, for the poem “Makdisi Street Calligraphies” from Summer 2021
Eileen Vorbach Collins of Baltimore, Maryland, for the essay “Phone Home” from Summer 2021
Amanda Gomez of Virginia Beach, Virginia, for the poem “Inheritance” from Fall 2021
Stella Wong of New York City, for the poem “The Brutal Imagination of a Banana” from Winter 2021
Emily Mitchell of College Park, Maryland, for the story “Forgotten Pastimes of the Victorians” from Fall 2021
These 20 awards are made possible through the generosity of Glenna Luschei.
Prairie Schooner is published with support from the University of Nebraska Press, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln English Department and its creative writing program, and the Glenna Luschei Endowed Editorship and Fund for Excellence at Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska Foundation.
