New Issue of the Schooner! Editor’s Picks: 12 Years of Transformative Work

The latest issue of the Schooner has arrived! Volume 98, Issue 1 (Spring 2024) features a portfolio of Editor’s Picks selected by Kwame Dawes, celebrating twelve years of published work under his leadership as Editor-in-Chief. Here is an excerpt from Dawes’ foreword to the issue:

“In August of 2011, I was handed the reigns of Prairie Schooner by the interim editor, the kind and gracious Stephen Behrendt, who held the fort briefly after Hilda Raz’s retirement and the decades of her monumental leadership of this venerable journal. In June of 2025, I will be stepping down as editor in chief of the Schooner (a name I hope will stick going forward) to embark on other adventures. I have had a marvelous time in this role, especially because of the amazing staff I have had the privilege to work with, from Marianne Kunkel, through Ashley Strosnider, to Siwar Masannat, and, most recently, Jessica Poli—all incredible managing editors of brilliance, professionalism, great humor, and generosity.

This issue is an indulgence. We have in these twelve years published more than one thousand and nine hundred writers at various stages of their careers and each issue has felt like a gift to me. It has been an honor to be able to have such a rich and impressive pool of writers to celebrate in these pages, and I wanted to mark some moments that I believe have been transformative for the journal, and for me, during my tenure as editor.”

Contributors from the issue include Aracelis Girmay, dg okpik, Marilyn Chin, Omar Sakr. Work reprinted in this special issue has previously been awarded annual Schooner awards including the Glenna Luschei Award, the Lawrence Foundation Award, the Virginia Faulkner Award, the Edward Stanley Award, the Bernice Slote Award, the Strousse Award, the Hugh J. Luke Award, and the Jane Geske Award.

The issue also features Jordan Walker’s prize-winning essay “Island of Misfits,” winner of the 2023 Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest. Walker’s essay was selected by guest judge Siddhartha Deb, who said “I picked ‘The Island’ as the winner for its ability to vividly render a time and place and pull me into that as a reader. I found its exploration of childhood — and the difficult, broken world of adults as perceived through the eyes of a child — to be moving, full of empathy for all the characters, no matter how flawed. Within its dynamic of a family troubled by various kinds of loss, the writer successfully brought in considerations of nature, consumption, and masculinity, and in that achieved a kind of larger truth.”

To see the full contributor’s list and order a copy of the Spring 2024 issue, visit our online shop. Want the Schooner in your mailbox more often? Subscribe now!