2013 Award Winners Announced!

Ninth Letter is proud to announce the winners of our 2013 Literary Awards!

Poetry winner: R. A. Villanueva, for his poems "Aftermaths" and "Sacrum"

Fiction winner: Caitlin O'Neill, for her story "The Change Over Day"

Creative Nonfiction winner: Jessica Wilbanks, for her essay "On the Far Side of the Fire"

Literature in Translation: Eleanor Goodman, for her translation of excerpts from Shen Wei's A Dictionary of Xinjiang

Other honors accorded by our judges include:

G. C. Waldrep selected "Three Expressions of El Tio" and "Five Characteristics of the Genus Tragelaphus" by Zoey Farber as the Runner Up entry in poetry

Alexis Levitin selected Olga Nikolova's translations of "A Birthday Between Two Seas," "A Formula for Infinity," and "Toast" by Krasimira Zafirova's as the Runner Up entry up in translation

Margot Livesey named "Pinprick" by Christie Heinrichs, "Charcoal" by Rachel Unkefer, and "Here Where the World Is Greening" by Rachel May as Honorable Mentions in fiction.

Many thanks to our judges G. C. Waldrep, Lia Purpura, Alexis Levitin, and Margot Livesey, and to all the terrific authors who submitted work.

Announcement: Submission Dates

Our regular submission period will end this Thursday, February 28, at 5pm. New electronic submissions will not be accepted after that time. All mailed submissions, if you're into that, must be postmarked by that date. Check out our submission guidelines for a last minute refresher.

However, we will begin accepting submissions for our first ever Literary Awards on March 1! We have four categories: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and Literature in Translation. The winner of each category wins $1,000 as well as publication in our Fall/Winter 2013-14 (vol. 10, no. 2) issue. Details on entry fees, judges, and submission information can be found on our contest page.

We look forward to reading your work! 

Big News: 2013 Literary Awards

We are very happy to announce our first annual Literary Awards competition! We'll begin accepting entries in March, so get to work on putting your submission together. There will be four categories: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and Literature in Translation. The winner for each category will receive $1,000 and publication in our Fall/Winter 2013-14 issue (vol. 10, no. 2).

The entry fee is $17 for one submission to one category. All entrants receive a one-year subscription to Ninth Letter. For more information on the contest, including who will be judging each category (hint: they're incredible) and formatting, etc., vist the contest page. 

Of course, we'll have more information as the contest entry period draws closer. 

Quick Contributor News

Here's a couple updates concerning some of our contributors:

CNF editor, Philip Graham interviews William Gillespie (vol. 7, no. 2) about his novel, Keyhole Factory.

Also, the National Book Critics Circle Awards announced their finalist for 2012 today and we were thrilled to see some 9L contributors on the list: D.A. Powell (vol. 7, no. 2) for Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys, Lucia Perillo (vol. 3, no. 1) for On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths, and Adam Johnson for The Orphan Master's Son (vol. 1, no. 2). Congratulations! Winners will be announced on February 28.

We love sharing good news, so if you're a contributor and have news you'd like for us to share, be sure to contact us at info@ninthletter.com

Xu Xi and David Clarke

Let's start the weekend off right by updating our Featured Writer/Artist section with a collaboration between Xu Xi and David Clarke. We're happy to bring you "Fear Itself," which is an ekphrastic essay in response to The Promenade des Anglais, Nice 18 July 2011, part of an in-progress collaboration between author, Xu Xi and photographer, David Clarke.

Also, I wanted to take a moment to announce that our Fall/Winter 2011 (vol. 7, no. 2) and Spring/Summer 2011 (vol. 8, no. 1) issues, under the art direction of Jimmy Luu, were winners in Print's Regional Design Annual. Congrats to Jimmy and all the designers who worked on these issues!


 Have a great weekend everyone!

News Round Up

Ninth Letter is happy to present WORDHARVEST on Saturday, September 29 starting at 4pm. The official description: Five stellar writers read from their work as the harvest moon rises. Check out this ridiculously fantastic roster:

• Jensen Beach (For Out of the Heart Proceed)
• Roxane Gay (Ayiti)
• Ted Sanders (No Animals We Could Name)
• Amy Sayre (The Widows of Whitechapel)
• Chad Simpson (Tell Everyone I Said Hi)

Wow! I've had the pleasure of hearing each of them read before and it will be a real treat to see them all together. You're going to be there, right? Of course. It's totally worth a trip to Champaign, IL. The reading will be at Cowboy Monkey (6 Taylor Street, Champaign, Illinois 68120). Seriously, it's going to one hell of a good time. Hope to see you there!

Congratulations to LeAnne Howe, U of I creative writing professor and former CNF editor for 9L, on being awarded The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas.
 
Head over to the A/V section of ninthletter.com for the latest in a series of two handed drawing  videos from Ninth Letter designers, inspired by the stories and essays in our Spring/Summer 2012 issue. This month's videos are for "Picnic Geese," "Something Californian," and "The Scientist." Psst...I can also tell you that I'm working on an interview with "Picnic Geese" author Joseph Gross, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.

Brynn Saito's poem, "Match," from the Spring/Summer 2012 issue was featured on Verse Daily.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Don't forget to enter our contest for Robin Hemley's "Study Questions for the Essay at Hand," if you haven't already. 

Contributors: we love sharing good news, so be sure to let us know if you have a new book coming out or have readings scheduled or any other news we can pass along to our readers via the blog. Contact us at info@ninthletter.com.

2012 NEA Fellows

The 2012 NEA Grants were announced today and we're very happy to see some familiar 9L names on the Literature Fellowships: Creative Writing (Prose) list. Congratulations to Benjamin Percy (vol. 6, no. 2), Eula Biss (vol. 3, no. 1), and former 9L staffer, Ted Sanders!

Contributor Round-Up

Congratulations to Camille Dungy (vol. 5, no. 1) for winning an ABA/Before Columbus award!

Congratulations are also in order for Matthew Siegel (vol. 7, no. 2). His poem from Ninth Letter, "Matthew you're leaving again so soon" received a special mention in the 2012 Pushcart Prize anthology.

Ashley Butler (vol. 4, no. 2) will be reading from her collection of essays, Dear Sound of Footstep, at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee on Monday, November 7 at 8pm.

Whit Coppedge (vol. 7, no. 1) talks with Agni's senior editor, William Pierce, and our very own editor, Jodee Stanley, about what happens behind the scenes at lit mags.

Check out this New York Times article on Peter Orner's (vol. 7, no. 2) new novel, Love and Shame and Love, which will be released on November 7. Also check out Peter's thoughts on sad stories in a new edition of The Lonely Voice.

Finally, thanks to all the readers who subscribed during our October subscription special! We greatly appreciate your support!

Contributor Round-Up

Congratulations to the following 9L contributors:

D.A. Powell (vol. 7, no. 2), Eula Biss (vol. 3, no. 1) have been named 2011 Guggenheim Fellows.

Ansel Elkins (forthcoming in vol. 8, no. 1) is one of the winners of the Boston Review's Discovery Poetry Contest.

Brian Oliu's (vol. 6, no. 1) collection of Tuscaloosa Craigslist Missed Connections, So You Know it's Me, will be published by Tiny Hardcore Press.

The Great Frustration by Seth Fried (vol. 3, no. 2 and vol. 6, no. 1) will be released in just a few days on May 1. Be sure to pick up a copy. Also stayed tuned to the blog as later this week we will have a 9L exclusive video featuring Seth as well as some other cool bonus features related to the release of his story collection.

T.A. Noonan (vol. 7, no. 1) is featured on Verse Daily with a poem from her book, Petticoat Government.

Also, if you're in the Urbana-Champaign area, be sure to stop by the Illini Union Bookstore today because Michelle Morano (forthcoming in vol. 8, no. 2) will be reading as part of the Carr Reading Series. The event starts at 4:30pm and is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

QUIDDITY Book Trailer Contest

Our neighbor to the west, Quiddity International Literary Journal, is sponsoring a book trailer contest for writers and small/Independent presses! Two prizes of $500 each will be awarded, and the deadline is December 10, 2011. Visit Quiddity's contest information page for complete guidelines.

Contributor News

Vanishing Point by Ander Monson (vol. 1, no. 2 & vol. 6, no. 2) is a finalist in the criticism category for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The NEA has posted bios and excerpts of work from the recipients of the 2010 Literature Fellowships: Prose. 9Lers Roy Kesey (vol. 1, no. 2, vol. 3, no. 2 & vol. 7, no. 2), Mike Czyzniejewski (vol. 7, no. 2), and Adam Johnson (vol. 1, no. 2) are among the fellowship recipients.

Congratulations everyone!

NEA Grants

Congratulations to the following 9L poets who received a 2011 Literature Fellowship: Creative Writing (Poetry) NEA grant:

Leslie Harrison (vol. 5, no. 1)

Christopher Kennedy (vol. 6, no. 2)

Alison Titus (vol. 5, no. 2)


Again, congratulations everyone!

Contributor News

9L Featured Artist Deke Weaver's The Unreliable Bestiary: Elephant will be presented by The University of Illinois Art + Design department from Thursday, September 23 - Monday, September, 27. Performances will be in the Stock Pavilion (1402 W. Pennsylvania, Urbana) and begin at 8pm. Jim Elkins from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will moderate a discussion after Monday's performance. All of the events are free and open to the public.

Congratulations to Khaled Mattawa (vol. 6, no. 2) for receiving the 2010 Academy Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. He will be honored at the 4th annual Poets Forum, October 28-30, in New York City where he will read from his work and participate in panel discussions.

Kim Dana Kupperman (vol. 4, no. 1) will be reading at Boulevard Books & Cafe in Brooklyn, NY on Friday, September 24 at 7pm to promote her excellent new book of essays, I've Only Recently Started Buying Wings.

Vol. 6, no. 2 contributor Benjamin Percy's second novel, Red Moon, was picked up by Grand Central. The book is described as "a timely reinvention of the werewolf myth." Percy's first novel, The Wilding will be released next week. Congratulations!

The Rumpus Book Club has chosen Adam Levin's (vol. 1, no. 1) debut novel, The Instructions, as their next book club pick. Sign up for the book club by 3pm(pst) today to receive the book an entire month before it's released!

Now is a good time to check back in with 7 days, 7 artists, 7 rings, the ongoing writer/artist collaborative project created by Nicole Walker (vol. 4, no. 1) and Rebecca Campbell.

In other news, tonight is the first VOICE reading of the semester at The Krannert Museum of Art in Champaign. U of I MFAers Angie Hine (poetry), Max Somers (poetery), and Eric Tanyavutti (fiction) will read from their work. The event starts at 7:30 and is free and open to the public.

Pushcart Prizes

Congratulations to Sarah Einstein! Her essay, "Mot" from the fall/winter 09-10 issue of Ninth Letter won a Pushcart Prize.

More congratulations goes out to 9L contributors Seth Fried (vol. 3, no. 2 & vol. 6, no. 1) and Joe Meno (vol. 3, no. 2). Both of them also won Puschart Prizes for stories that appeared in One Story.

The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards

Poet and UIUC creative writing professor, Janice Harrington, is one of the winners of The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Awards. The awards will be presented to the recipients on September 24 in New York City.

Congratulations Janice!

Red Dot Design Awards

We're very pleased and proud to report that the current issue of Ninth Letter, vol 6, no. 1, has won a Red Dot Design Award in the editorial category.

If you haven't seen the new issue and the new design, get your copy today!

Ninth Letter Design Kudos

Congrats to our awesome designers: Ninth Letter volume 5 no. 1 and no. 2 were both selected to appear in Print Magazine's 2009 Regional Design Annual. Print is a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design, dedicated to showcasing the extraordinary in design on and off the page. Their Regional Design Annual is the most comprehensive annual survey of graphic design in the United States.

Bakeless Prize

Kim Dana Kupperman (Spring/Summer 2007) won the 2009 Katherine Nason Bakeless Prize for Nonfiction for her manuscript titled, I Just Lately Started Buying Wings: Missives from the Interior. Graywolf Press will publish the book and we'll keep you updated on the release date.

Congratulations, Kim!

2009 Guggenheim Fellowships

Congratulations to 9L contributors Chris Abani, John Haskell, and George Singleton, who were each awarded a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually to writers, scholars, and artists who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Katori Hall Wins Playwrights of New York Fellowship

Katori Hall has been awarded the 2009-10 Playwrights of New York Fellowship, an award given annually by the Lark Play Development Center. The fellowship provides financial support to allow the recipient to spend 12 months writing full time, and comes with a $24,000 stipend and a rent-free year in a New York midtown apartment.

Katori Hall's play Hoodoo Love played a 2007 run Off Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater; an excerpt of her new play Oreogirl: The Miscegenation of Miss Emma Brown appears in the Fall/Winter 2008-9 issue of 9L.