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February 2014

How a Book Happens with kathryn l pringle by Kristi Carter

Click below to listen to kathryn l pringle read from her book "fault tree."

This is the second installment of our new series in which Kristi Carter, our Book Prize Coordinator, speaks with book prize winners to discuss what goes in to the preparation of a manuscript, how winning affects the life of the writer, and the life of the book.

To submit your fiction or poetry manuscript to this year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize contest, click here.

Today, we're featuring her interview with kathryn l pringle who won the 2011 Omnidawn First/Second Book Prize, for her second poetry collection, fault tree.

How many times was the manuscript submitted for contests and publication? Were there any exciting milestones prior to winning the Omnidawn First/Second Book Prize?

A 6-Disc Set of "Warm-Up" Songs for Writers by Natalie Diaz

In another life, my older brother was a beautiful, muscular boy who could jump from a standing position and grab a missed shot right from the rim and either hit a waiting outlet or spring back up to drop it into the net. He had thin ankles and long lean legs with high calf muscles balled tight like fists and split like upside down hearts—runners legs, jumpers legs, Indian legs. He also had the upper body of a Mojave man—wide-chested, broad-shouldered, arms and hands that hung down near his knees, like sling shots is what my mother always said, meaning he was a fighter. He played varsity basketball for our small town high school, the Needles Mustangs. They were royal blue and white. A bright blue mustang was painted on the front of the gymnasium, another inside against the brick wall, and a third in a circle on the wooden middle half court. Mustangs. I have always associated them with basketball.

How A Book Happens with Allison Seay by Kristi Carter

Click below to listen to Allison Seay read her poem "Sick Room."
Allison Seay

This is the first installment of our new series in which Kristi Carter, our Book Prize Coordinator, speaks with a variety of book prize winners to discuss what goes in to the preparation of a manuscript, how winning affects the life of the writer, and the life of the book.

To submit your fiction or poetry manuscript to this year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize contest, click here.

Today, we're featuring her interview with Allison Seay who won the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize 2012, for her debut poetry collection To See the Queen (Persea Books).

How many times was the manuscript submitted for contests and publication? Were there any exciting milestones prior to winning the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize?

Selecting the Essential Story: A Literary Conversation with Brad Watson

Interviewed by James Madison Redd

Brad Watson was born in Meridian, Mississippi. He teaches creative writing at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. His first collection, Last Days of the Dog Men, won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (W.W. Norton, 2010) is his most recent collection, which was a finalist for the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and received the Award in Fiction from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. In 2013 Watson was honored with an Award in Letters from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is at work on a new novel.

Redd: You were a reporter for many years. Do you have a journalist’s mentality when you begin to research a topic?

Briefly Noted – February 2014

Monthly book reviews in brief from the staff of Prairie Schooner and associates
Hand-Drying in America

Monthly book reviews in brief from the staff of Prairie Schooner and associates.

Vol. 3 Issue 1. February 2014. Ed. James Madison Redd and Paul Clark.

Hand-Drying in America by Ben Katchor | Reviewed by Claire Harlan-Orsi The Obstinate Snail by Rachid Boudjedra (A Short-shrifted Review) | Reviewed by Jack Hill Chord Box by Elizabeth Lindsey Rodgers | Reviewed by Hugh Sheehy