Contest



Astrophil Press is pleased to announce this years' recipient of the
Astrophil Press Poetry Prize:
 
Ellen Welcker

The finalists
 (in no particular order)

Sarah Sousa
James Capozzi
Ryan Eckes
Ian Jarris
Kristin Hatch
Christopher Kondric
Justin Petropoulos



After spending a few hours writing emails to everyone who entered (no easy task!), I feel confident that I can announce the winner of the Astrophil Poetry Award without shocking anyone.

It was a tough decision and our judges spent a great deal of time considering each piece of work. There were many excellent manuscripts and we feel lucky that so many talented writers would submit their work to our press; however, in the end our judges decided on one manuscript.

Astrophil Press would like to thank all of the wonderful writers who participated in this year's contest. We'd also like to thank Eleni Sikelianos for taking the time to judge the contest. Furthermore, we'd like to thank our other poetry judges who worked very hard to read all of the manuscripts with thoughtful consideration (David Gruber and Tom Comitta).

Ellen's book will be available this summer. We look forward to working with Ellen and we think you will enjoy her book as much as we did.

 

Featured Books

Downstream from Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan By Keith Abbott

In Downstream from Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan, Keith Abbott paints a portrait of Richard Brautigan as a lovable and whimsical friend. Abbott explains the writer’s dedication to the art of fiction and his quest to break beyond the pop culture, hippie label that haunted him until his suicide in 1984. Brautigan’s tight prose inspired authors such as Haruki Murakami and his experimentation with the line won him accolades from authors like Ishmael Reed, Raymond Carver, and Michael McClure. His work is highly influential and Abbott draws a clear connection between Brautigan’s life and his writing. This book is essential for anyone who is interested in the work of Richard Brautigan. Raymond Carver writes, "Truly the best thing I've ever seen written of the man."

The Procession of Mollusks By Eric Olson

If Fletch took Lovecraft to see a movie and it turned out to be a double feature—'Slugs: muerte viscosa' and 'The Monster that Challenged the World'--this post-genre romp is what might have been extracted from their post-movie dreams. This is a smart, funny, and (most importantly) irreverently weird book.
—Brian Evenson, author of The Open Curtain and The Wavering Knife.

Sleepers' Republic By David Gruber

In David Gruber’s Sleepers’ Republic nature is dreaming, and we are its dreams. Time is slowed down or speeded up: “suddenly, the sun / gives way to stars.” And: “What we knew moves sudden / without warning / throwing us to the ground / an emptiness in the sea / The air above us filled with fruit.” It may be that love “offers the opposite of a kiss,” yet Gruber’s upended universe is nonetheless an exhilarating medium in which the reader can both swim and breathe.
— John Ashbery author of Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror and Notes from the Air