2020 Prairie Schooner Award Winners Announced!

Thanks to generous supporters of the literary arts, Prairie Schooner was able to award eighteen writing prizes totaling $9,500 for work published by established and emerging writers in 2019.

Maurine Ogbaa of Houston, TX, received the $1,500 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award for her story “The Men in Her Life,” published in the Winter 2019 issue. The Glenna Luschei Award is made possible by the generosity of poet, publisher, and philanthropist Glenna Luschei.

The $2,000 Lawrence Foundation Award for the best short story published in Prairie Schooner in 2019 was given to Ọlákìtán Aládéṣuyì of Lagos, Nigeria, for her story “Girl of my dreams” from the Winter 2019 issue. This prize is made possible by the Lawrence Foundation of New York City and its director, Leonard S. Bernstein.

The $1,000 Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing was given to E.J. Koh, of Seattle, WA, for her essay “How to Age with Grace” from the Summer 2019 issue. The Faulkner Award is supported by charitable contributions to honor Virginia Faulkner, former editor-in-chief of the University of Nebraska Press and Prairie Schooner fiction editor.

The $1,000 Edward Stanley Award for poetry was given to Rewa Zeinati, of Dearborn Heights, MI, for five poems in the Summer 2019 issue. This award is made possible through charitable contributions from the family of Edward Stanley, a member of the committee that founded Prairie Schooner in 1926.

The $500 Bernice Slote Award for the best work by a beginning writer was given to Benjamin Keoseyan, of Tucson, AZ, for four poems in the Summer 2019 issue. The Slote Award is supported by the estate of Bernice Slote, Prairie Schooner editor from 1963 through 1980.

The $500 Annual Prairie Schooner Strousse Award for the best poem or group of poems was given to He Xiang of New York, NY, for seven poems in the Fall 2019 issue. The Strousse Award is given in honor of Flora Strousse.

The $250 Hugh J. Luke Award was given to Lynne Knight of Royston, British Columbia, for four poems in the Fall 2019 issue. The Hugh J. Luke Award was established in memory of Prairie Schooner’s editor from 1980 through 1987.

The $250 Jane Geske Award was given to Kenan Orhan of Kansas City, MO, for his story “Three Instances in Which Emre Kills His Daughters” from the Spring 2019 issue. The award is given by Norman Geske in honor of his wife, Jane Geske, a lifelong support of Nebraska’s literary arts.

Ten writers received annual Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Awards for $250 each. These awards are made possible through the generosity of Glenna Luschei.

Eric Tran, of Asheville, NC, for his three poems in the Summer issue

Kian Rank, of Minneapolis, MN, for their three poems in the Spring issue

Donald Platt, of West Lafayette, IN, for his two poems in the Winter issue

Molly Spencer, of Plymouth, MI, for her six poems in the Summer issue

Rochelle Hurt, of Pittsburgh, PA, for her essay “Lifespans” in the Fall issue

Frank X. Gaspar, of Long Beach, CA, for his poem “Blues” in the Winter issue

Courtney Sender, of Cambridge, MA, for her story “To Do with the Body” in the Winter issue

Elizabeth Bevilacqua, of Pittsfield, MA, for her essay “Cycles” in the Winter issue

Cam Rentsch, of Chicago, IL, for the essay “East of Aztlán” in the Sumer issue

Obinna Udenwe, of Ebonyi, Nigeria, for his story “John 101, or The New Ridiculous Way to Commit Suicide and Be Famous” in the Spring issue

Prairie Schooner is published with support from the University of Nebraska Press, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department and its creative writing program, and the Glenna Luschei Endowed Editorship and Fund for Excellence at Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska Foundation. Subscriptions may be ordered by visiting https://prairieschooner.unl.edu. You can also follow Prairie Schooner on Twitter and Facebook.