#2024 Pushcart Prize Winner

[sparksofcalliope]

And the winner is...

#poetry #award #pushcartprize #pushcart #SparksofCalliope #LaurieKuntz #poetrylovers

Sparks of Calliope is pleased to announce its 2024 nomination of “My Father Remembers” by Laurie Kuntz has been selected for inclusion in Pushcart Prize XLIX (2025 edition). Congratulations, Laurie! Read “My Father Remembers” in Sparks of Calliope here. In accordance with the contract provided by Pushcart Press, Sparks of Calliope and Ms. Laurie Kuntz will receive a copy of this edition of…

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'2023 was awash with leading queer men (finally), from Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in the psychological ghost story All of Us Strangers and Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer in toe-sucking drama Fellow Travelers...

One of the most anticipated new films, however, is The History of Sound. The queer romance drama, adapted from Ben Shattuck’s titular novel, had pulses racing when Mescal and God’s Own Country star Josh O’Connor were cast as the leads back in 2021. (We can understand why. We suffered the same fate.)

From cast members to the plot, here’s a recap of everything that we know so far about The History of Sound.

What’s the plot?

The History of Sound is based on the Pushcart Prize-winning novel by Ben Shattuck, a collection of 12 short stories that are set across three centuries and explores the generational patterns of love and loss. Each following story provides a revelation of the previous entrant.

The title story follows two young men in the shadows of WWI who are determined to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen. Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor) begin to log the events, whilst falling in love in the process.

The adaptation is being directed by Oliver Hermanus and produced by Tim Haslam, Andrew Kortschac, Lisa Ciuffetti and Andrea Roa. Hermanus is best known for his Queer Palm Award-winning romance Beauty (2011). He also serves as the director and executive producer of Sky Atlantic’s upcoming historical queer series Mary & George, which stars Oscar winner Julianne Moore and Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine...

Who is in the cast?

The only two cast members confirmed for The History of Sound are Mescal and O’Connor.

O’Connor memorably starred in the critically-acclaimed same-sex romantic drama God’s Own Country. The heartfelt love story develops when a Yorkshire farmer’s (O’Connor) life changes with the arrival of a Romanian migrant farm hand named Gheorghe (Alec Secăreanu). Despite initial tension, the two soon become engaged in a passionate meet in nature.

Mescal, who rose to fame in BBC’s Normal People, recently starred in Andrew Haigh’s psychological adaptation of Japanese ghost story All of Us Strangers opposite Andrew Scott. The film follows Adam (Scott), a screenwriter who is pulled back into his childhood home “where he discovers that his long-dead parents are both living and look the same age as the day they died over 30 years ago”. At the same time, Adam falls in love with his “mysterious” neighbour Harry.

In an interview with Variety at the time of the cast announcement, Hermanus opened up about the powerful love story and working with Mescal and O’Connor.

“I instantly fell in love with Ben Shattuck’s flawlessly beautiful short story and knew I had to be involved in its journey to the screen. Paul and Josh are two of the most promising actors of their generation who will share with us deeply soulful performances,” he said.

“This is an unexpected love story that needs to be told — it is a journey through the life of America, across the 20th century and the traditions of American folk music, all seen through the bond between two men immersed in the history of sound.”

Has filming started?

The film had been slated to begin filming in summer 2022, across the US, UK and Italy. However, Mescal revealed in a May 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the film was on pause due to conflicting schedules.

“But the learning for me is that I’m just dying to make films with people I like, and Josh is one of those people that I would work with in a heartbeat,” he shared.

On 11 January 2024, FilmUpdates posted that the film was due to begin filming in March, this year...'

[finishinglinepress]

2024 Open Chapbook Competition results:

Winner: Fleda Brown of Traverse City, Michigan for Doctor of the World

Fleda Brown’s tenth collection of poems, Flying Through a Hole in the Storm (2021) won the Hollis Summers Prize from Ohio University Press and is an Indie finalist. Earlier poems can be found in The Woods Are On Fire: New & Selected Poems, chosen by Ted Kooser for his University of Nebraska series, 2017. Her work has appeared three times in The Best American Poetry and has won a Pushcart Prize, the Felix Pollak Prize, the Philip Levine Prize, and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writer’s Award, and has twice been a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Her new memoir is Mortality, with Friends (Wayne State University Press, an MIPA Winner and Midwest Book Award winner in memoir). She was poet laureate of Delaware from 2001-07.

1st HM: Anita Feng of Issaquah, Washington

2nd HM: Don Colburn of Falmouth, Maine

3rd HM: Latorial Faison of Chester, Virginia

4th HM: geo staley of Aloha, Oregon

Judge: Leah Huete de Maines

461 entries

In addition to the finalists, we selected some of the best entries for publication.

Thank you to all who entered the competition.

Finishing Line Press has no reading fee in November. FLP is a proud member of CLMP.

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2024 American Short(er) Fiction Prize

We are thrilled to announce that the brilliant Dantiel W. Moniz—author of the acclaimed story collection Milk, Blood, Heat—will judge our 2024 American Short(er) Fiction Prize.

The prize recognizes extraordinary short fiction under 1,000 words. The first-place winner will receive a $1,000 prize and publication. Previous winners of the Short(er) Fiction Prize have gone on to be anthologized in places such as The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. All entries will be considered for publication.

For more info and guidelines: https://americanshortfiction.org/submityourwork/the-shorter-fiction-prize/

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Shadows by Kristin Bryant Rajan

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/shadows-by-kristin-bryant-rajan/

Kristin Bryant Rajan, Ph.D. in English, writes #poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary criticism in Atlanta, GA. She is widely published in literary and creative writing journals and books and is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. Her literary research and creative writing revolve around meditative moments of deep self. She is a senior lecturer in English at Kennesaw State University.

PRAISE FOR Shadows by Kristin Bryant Rajan

Kristin Rajan‘s four long poems draw readers into a deep pool of memory where they encounter a voice that negotiates self with #love, #family, and #loss. This voice is clear and strong and simultaneously vulnerable, creating a stark tension that propels readers through lines and images filled with candor and longing. Thoughtful readers will finish this book and be a different person than when they started.

–Kimberly K. Williams, author of Sometimes a Woman, winner of the 2022 WILLA Literary Prize in Poetry.

Kristin Rajan writes, “I am a loosened thread on the fringes of this tapestry.” Likewise, Shadows is woven with the shadows of memory—reconciling what we thought we knew with what we know now. Rajan’s work comes full circle with movement and maturity, a powerful trajectory that takes us by surprise in “Sundays and Shadows”: “But I don’t think he was looking at the trees / or the ornate shapes their shadows made on sidewalks.” At once familial and familiar, each celebration of life and death develops slowly like the shadows of film.

–Valerie A. Smith, author of Back to Alabama, a book of poems forthcoming from Sundress Publications in 2024.

In four narrative poems written with gentle musicality, Kristin Rajan transports the reader into the isolation of growing up in a complicated family. Reflecting the narrator’s conflict, this is a book of contrasts, in which there is “darkness beneath color.” Through memorable images, Rajan conveys detachment and guilt from a young age and later loss and despair, “Who will keep the front door wide open?” We move with this author through vivid settings at different ages, the details lingering long after the final page. Rajan combines horror and softness in a way that invites the reader to look without judgement at our own blood relationships.

–Lisa Alletson, author of Good Mother Lizard, winner of the Headlight Review Poetry Chapbook Prize

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems