OUR HIGHLY ACCLAIMED SUMMER CONTEST ISSUE!
Dear Readers and Writers,
The Solsticelitmag Contest has found some literary treasures! From among our past annual Contest Winners and Finalists, we count a 2017 Finalist for a Pushcart in Poetry, and one of two cited Notable Essays in The Best American Essays 2015 and one in The Best American Essays 2016.
Our final judges, along with Solstice editors, select winners and finalists from among the hundreds of talented authors who submit. If you submitted in the past, we encourage you to read these winners and finalists and to submit again next year.
HERE IS OUR LIST OF 2017 WINNERS & FINALISTS & SOLSTICE EDITORS’ PICKS:
(Please see the individual Editors’ Notes for more details. Editors’ Picks selected by Solstice editors: Richard Hoffman for Nonfiction, Ben Berman for Poetry, and Lee Hope, with Assistant Editor Brenda Prescott, for Fiction.)
Nonfiction: Final Judge: Meredith Hall:
(With gratitude to Michael Steinberg for donating the $500 Nonfiction Prize)
Winner:
Suzanne Gray
“Bridge of Cards”
Runner-Up
Mollie Murray
“Dysfunction”
Runner-Up
Catherine Mauk
“The Third Eye”
Editor’s Pick
Caitlin McGill
“Breaking Boundaries”
Editor’s Pick
Sharon Doorasamy
“Drowning in Margaret Culkin Banning’s Pool”
Editor’s Pick
Maija Rothenberg
“J is for Juxtapose”
Poetry: Judge: Final Judge Afaa Michael Weaver:
(For the $500 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry)
Winner:
Tyler Erlendson
“Prayer for a New God”
Finalist:
Isaac Black
“Sing Sing’s Electric Chair, Old Sparky“
Finalist:
Carlos Gomez
“Before the Last Shot”
Finalist:
John Sibley Williams
“Salvage”
Fiction: Judge: Final Judge Robert Lopez:
(For the $1,000 Fiction Prize)
Winner:
Tim Benjamin
“The Visitor”
Runner-up:
Roberta Gates
“Search for a Martyr”
Editors’ Pick:
Mariya Taher
“The Chaiwalla”
Editors’ Pick:
Michael Mark
“On a Night in Shelby County”
I also urge you to click on Richard Ross’s photography, especially his powerful, vital Juveniles in Justice series, some of which is included in this issue, including the cover art. Richard is devoted to promoting the rights of juveniles who are locked up. Please also check, when you can, a video of his more of his Juveniles in Justice series at https://vimeo.com/66607265
For next year, in collaboration with our Managing Editor Amy Grier, Solstice Literary Magazine is going to enhance our push to publish writers of diversity, in race, class, ethnicity, gender, also to international authors and veterans. We want your voices. We want to deal more intensely with protecting our environment, with racial equity, with the dispossessed and with those on the margins.
Of course, we also publish amazing established writers. And we are sending out a call for more experimental work in all genres. We believe that writing on the edge is in itself a call to action, to move beyond boundaries. And, btw, how about some irony?
Our submissions open again on September 1st. We have fine readers and are reenergized to respond more quickly. Send us your very best work. We accept fewer than 5% of submissions, but we are open to writing that challenges, probes, takes risks, resists.
Warmly, Lee Hope
Editor-in-Chief
