Contest & Scholarships
Winner of the International Literature Award
Dzanc Books and Guernica are pleased to announce the winner of the International Literature Award—affiliated with the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal (June 19-July 2, 2011)—who receives airfare, accommodations, and tuition to this summer’s program and publication in Guernica.
Out of just under 200 entries, Final Judge Chris Abani selected a group of poems by Jacob Shores-Arguello as the winner:
Jacob Shores-Arguello grew up in Costa Rica and the United States. He studied poetry and translation at the MFA program at the University of Arkansas where he was the Walton Fellow. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Ukraine and the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship in Provincetown.
Finalists include:
Kevin Kaiser’s “Little Parrots” (fiction)
Angie Lee’s “Shuffle Master of the Universe” (nonfiction)
Andrew MacDonald’s “Krupkee” (fiction)
Shivani Manghnani’s “Tsunami” (nonfiction)
Ottessa Moshfegh’s “The Chaperone” (fiction)
Brian Sousa’s “Away from the Mountains and Towards the Sea” (fiction)
Eleanor Stanford’s “A Story of Brazil in Three Fruits” (nonfiction)
_____________________________________
Winners of Scholarships for Writers of Luso Descent
Dzanc Books and the Luso-American Development Foundation also announce the winners of four scholarships for North American writers of Luso descent to attend the ILP in Lisbon this summer and participate in Frank Gaspar’s workshop there:
Traci Brimhall is the author of Rookery (Southern Illinois University Press), winner of the 2009 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She was the 2008-09 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and currently teaches at Western Michigan University, where she is a doctoral associate and Kings/Chávez/Parks Fellow.
Carlos J. Queirós, a Portuguese-American writer, was born and raised in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey. His work has appeared in AARP The Magazine, On Tap Magazine, Críticas Magazine, Library Journal, The Newark Metro, and other publications. Carlos has a Master of Arts in English/Creative Writing from Temple University where he was a Future Faculty Fellow and was awarded the Frances Tebet Israel Prize in fiction. This fall he will be attending The Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Amy Sayre-Roberts is an associate editor at Quiddity International Literary Journal. Her publications include Chicago Noir, Sou’wester, Ninth Letter, and Luso-American Literature, an anthology featuring a chapter of her novel manuscript, The Portuguese Box. She lives in Springfield, Illinois, and is currently working on a collection of short stories.
Brian Sousa has been published in Redivider, Gavea-Brown, and The Writer magazine. This year, UMASS/Dartmouth will publish his first collection of stories, and his work will also be featured in a Rutgers University Press anthology of Luso-American Literature. In 2007, he was awarded a fellowship by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Sousa, who grew up in the Ocean State, currently lives in Boston and teaches writing at Boston College. He also plays guitar in the band Ocean*Transfer.
Additionally, we announce a special scholarship endowed by Instituto Camões to send a Canadian of Luso descent:
Richard Simas is a freelance writer living in Montreal. His fiction won a 2008 Fiddlehead literary prize and has appeared in the Journey Prize Anthology. His nonfiction work has been published in literary and arts reviews in Canada and Europe, and includes commentaries on contemporary dance, music, theater, and Azorean culture. His New Music-Spoken word performance based on Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet will premier at the Open Ears New Music festival in Canada.
2011 CONTEST GUIDELINES ARE POSTED BELOW. 2012 CONTEST 7 SCHOLARSHIP GUIDELINES WILL BE AVAILABLE IN FALL 2011!
The ILP International Literature Award
FINAL JUDGE: Chris Abani
The charge went that American literature is too insular, that it’s neither concerned with nor does it engage the outside world. The critic was the Secretary of the Swedish Academy that decides the Nobel Prize. You can be sure that Canadian literature was lumped in there as well. We’re afraid that, to a degree, he was right.
Also, of course, in many ways he was wrong. Maybe a certain stripe of North American literature is too insular. Maybe a certain stripe does not engage the outside world. But the rivulets of work that do engage and which are anything but insular—these rivulets run deep.
The ILP hopes to encourage this tradition with its annual contest, which seeks to award the author of the winning entry airfare, accommodations, and tuition to the Disquiet program in Lisbon, Portugal in 2011 AND publication of the winning piece in the magazine of art and politics Guernica. Finalists and other entrants deemed to be of the highest quality will be offered partial tuition scholarships and may be considered for publication.
What to submit: We wish to cast the net wide in our definition of eligible entries. Work of any genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) that broadens the landscape of North American literature outside of the borders of North America is eligible. Examples of eligible entries, to give you an idea, might include a poem about a Hungarian grandmother; an essay based on your time in some foreign land--maybe travel writing, maybe more conventional journalism, maybe something in between; a short story featuring a North American abroad a la, perhaps, Paul Bowles... But these should not be read as sign posts. We wish to be surprised. In general, if your work flies in the face of this charge of insularity, submit it.
Eligibility: Entries must be in English. Writers must live or have lived in Canada or the United States but need not necessarily be citizens or permanent residents. Entries may not be previously published.
Length: One entry may include three poems or a single prose piece up to thirty double-spaced pages in length. Multiple entries must be accompanied by multiple reading fees. Poets wishing to submit more than three poems may do so by including additional reading fees. Prose submissions more than thirty pages are ineligible.
Judging: The final judge is Chris Abani:
Chris Abani's prose includes Song For Night (Akashic, 2007), The Virgin of Flames (Penguin, 2007), Becoming Abigail (Akashic, 2006), GraceLand (FSG, 2004), and Masters of the Board (Delta, 1985). His poetry collections are Sanctificum (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), There Are No Names for Red (Red Hen Press, 2010), Feed Me The Sun - Collected Long Poems (Peepal Tree Press, 2010) Hands Washing Water (Copper Canyon, 2006), Dog Woman (Red Hen, 2004), Daphne's Lot (Red Hen, 2003), and Kalakuta Republic (Saqi, 2001). He holds a BA in English (Nigeria), an MA in Gender and Culture (Birkbeck College, University of London), an MA in English and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing (University of Southern California). He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize & a Guggenheim Award.
Reading fee: $15USD (Checks made payable to Dzanc Books; if check is drawn in Canadian funds, please use converter here for the proper amount.) Reading fee may be applied to ILP tuition in the event entrant does not win.
Deadline: Postmark or electronic mail date stamp of Jan. 31, 2011.
How to enter:
By regular mail: Send the entry and the reading fee, to one of the following addresses
Dzanc Books
ILP International Literature Award
1334 Woodbourne Street
Westland, MI
USAElectronically:
-Save your entry in Rich Text Format (RTF).
-Submit your reading fee via Paypal using the button below.
-Forward the email confirmation of your reading fee with your entry attached as an RTF file to ilp.lisbon@gmail.com. The subject line MUST read “ILP International Literature Award.”
Questions: ilp.lisbon@gmail.com
*In the event that a winner is not chosen, all entrants will receive refunds in full on their entry fees. Though unlikely, the ILP reserves the right to award the winner a cash prize of $1,000USD in lieu of the ILP related prize (airfare, accommodations, and tuition).
A collaboration between Dzanc Books and the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) has made possible four full scholarships for writers of Luso descent from North America to attend the ILP in Lisbon in 2011.
To be eligible for the scholarship, entrants must be residents of the United States or Canada who have a genealogical link to a Lusophone country.
The four winners will receive airfare, accommodations, and full tuition to the 2011 ILP in Lisbon to attend Frank Gaspar's multi-genre workshop "Writing the Luso Experience" with other writers from Portugal and North America.** Runners-up will be offered partial tuition scholarships.
What to submit: 1) A 250-word statement about your background and what the scholarship would mean to you. 2) A maximum ten page writing sample in any genre (poetry, ficion, nonfiction).
Reading fee: $20USD (Checks made payable to Dzanc Books; if check is drawn in Canadian funds, please use converter here for the proper amount.) Reading fee may be applied to ILP tuition in the event entrant does not win.
Deadline: Postmark or electronic mail date stamp of Jan. 31, 2011.
How to enter:
By snail mail: Send the entry and the reading fee to
Dzanc Books
ILP Scholarship for Writers of Luso Descent
1334 Woodbourne Street
Westland, MI
USAElectronically:
-Save your entry in Rich Text Format (RTF).
-Submit your reading fee via Paypal using the button below.
-Forward the email confirmation of your reading fee with your entry attached as an RTF file to ilp.lisbon@gmail.com. The subject line MUST read “ILP Scholarships for Writers of Luso Descent.”
**In the event that a winner is not chosen, all entrants will receive refunds in full on their entry fees. This prize is contingent on funding allotments from FLAD and while it is unlikely it is possible that the number or the amount of individual awards may be reduced. In this eventuality winners will be notified in advance.
Questions: ilp.lisbon@gmail.com
