Just under deadline — not unlike many of our fine contributors — we’ve finally settled on our six nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Four of the six had been suggested by readers; thanks to everyone for their input. Whittling down the long list of very worthy nominees was extremely difficult, but we’re glad we asked for help on this. Our stats suggest that a great many people spent a lot of time reviewing the archives.
Here’s the list, in order of their publication:
“Miracle Fish,” by Karla Huston and Cathryn Cofell
“Patty-Cake,” by Karen Stromberg
“Economy of the Untameable,” by Jane Rice
“Economies,” by Monica Raymond
“Some Yellow Tulips,” by Pamela Johnson Parker
“Islam for Americans,” by Khadija Anderson
While we did make an effort to represent diverse styles, we obviously did not pay attention to gender or geographic diversity. Are these THE best text submissions we’ve published in the last year? Well, they are six of the best. That’s all we can say.
Interestingly, one of the above authors just told us that her poem had been rejected 47 times before we took it! It’s hard to think of a more apt illustration of the subjectivity of taste.
