Shenandoah Announces Three Annual Prizes
Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review has announced its annual prizes for the best short story, essay and poem.
The James Boatwright Prize for Poetry went to Corrie Williamson for “The Evolution of Nightmare,” which asks “how to tell the guest / from the ghost / wearing the same sweet husk.” Williamson grew up in Botetourt County, Va., and is completing her M.F.A. at the University of Arkansas. Her poems have also appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, The Southeast Review and Rattle.
The Carter Prize for Nonfiction was awarded to Roberta Bienvenu, a recently retired writing and literature professor at Johnson State University in Johnson, Vt. Her essay “Bartleby on Wall Street” is an exploration of the Occupy Movement (which began in New York City) in relation to 19th-century literary landmarks by Melville, Thoreau and Emerson. She is working on a memoir entitled “It Must Give Pleasure.”
The Shenandoah Prize for Fiction went to Michael Devens for “The Last Poolfish of Ash Meadows,” a story of love and taxidermy in the backwaters of southeast Asia. Devens holds an M.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and teaches in the Chicago area. His short fiction has also appeared in 580 Split.
The prizes are $1,000 each and are selected by the staff from all the work published in Shenandoah during a given volume year. The above three appeared in Shenandoah’s volume 62, number 2.
Editor R.T. Smith says, “We are especially pleased to highlight these three pieces, but they’re only a portion of the excellent writing we’ve featured this year.” Shenandoah is online at shenandoahliterary.org.
