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Vulture Gold

Winner of the 2025 Book Prize in Fiction

by Micah Dean Hicks

The winner of the 2025 Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction is Micah Dean Hicks for his manuscript Vulture Gold, chosen by guest judges DeMisty Bellinger and Eric Wat with Timothy Schaffert, Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner.

DeMisty Bellinger praised Hicks’ stories, noting that the collection “is a gratifying read, satisfying all the desires of good story collection. Modern fairy tales are nothing new, but the author still finds space to venture in new areas, challenging expectations and norms. The characters in each story are strong and diverse, the stories themselves are beguiling in premises and execution. Furthermore, the storytelling is resplendent in effective imagery and moving with measured pacing.”

About the Author

Micah Dean Hicks is the author of the novel Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones and the story collection Electricity and Other Dreams. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship and has been awarded the Calvino Prize. His writing has appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The New York Times, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Hicks grew up in rural southwest Arkansas. He now lives in Tampa where he teaches creative writing in the MFA program at the University of South Florida.