The Pushcart Prize is an American
literary prize published by
Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the
small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to submit up to six works they have featured. Anthologies of the selected works have been published annually since 1976. It is supported and staffed by volunteers.
Editors
The founding editors were
Anaïs Nin
Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell (February 11, 1903 – January 14, 1977; , ) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the ...
,
Buckminster Fuller,
Charles Newman,
Daniel Halpern,
Gordon Lish,
Harry Smith,
Hugh Fox,
Ishmael Reed,
Joyce Carol Oates, Len Fulton, Leonard Randolph,
Leslie Fiedler,
Nona Balakian,
Paul Bowles,
Paul Engle,
Ralph Ellison,
Reynolds Price, Rhoda Schwartz,
Richard Morris, Ted Wilentz, Tom Montag,
Bill Henderson and
William Phillips.
Many guest editors have served this collection over the years. They are listed in each edition that they edited. Over 200 contributing editors make nominations for each edition. They are listed on the masthead.
Winners
Each edition of the Pushcart Prize includes a complete index of presses and writers reprinted in the anthology since 1976. More than 2,000 writers and 600 presses have been selected.
Among the writers who received early recognition in Pushcart Prize anthologies were:
Kathy Acker,
Steven Barthelme,
Rick Bass,
Charles Baxter,
Bruce Boston,
Anne Carson,
Raymond Carver,
Joshua Clover,
Junot Diaz,
Andre Dubus
Andre Jules Dubus II (August 11, 1936 – February 24, 1999) was an American short story writer and essayist.
Biography
Early life and education
Andre Jules Dubus II was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the youngest child of Katherine (Burk ...
,
William H. Gass,
Suzanne Kamata
Suzanne Kamata (born September 29, 1965) is an American author and educator.
About
Kamata was born in Grand Haven, Michigan on September 29, 1965. She studied at Kalamazoo College, the University of South Carolina, and has an MFA in creative ...
,
Seán Mac Falls,
William Monahan,
Paul Muldoon,
Tim O'Brien,
Lance Olsen,
Miha Mazzini
Miha Mazzini (born 3 June 1961 in Jesenice, Yugoslavia) is a Slovenian writer, screenwriter and film director with thirty published books, translated in ten languages. He has a PhD in anthropology from the Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis and ...
,
Peter Orner
Peter Orner is an American writer. He is the author of two novels, two story collections and a book of essays. Orner holds the Professorship of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and was formerly a professor of creative writing at ...
,
Kevin Prufer
Kevin D. Prufer (born 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American poet, academic, editor, and essayist. His most recent books are ''How He Loved Them'' ( Four Way Books, 2018),''Churches'' ( Four Way Books, 2014), ''In A Beautiful Country'' ( Four ...
,
Kay Ryan,
Mona Simpson,
Ana Menéndez
Ana Menéndez (born 1970 in Los Angeles) is an American writer and journalist.
Early life
Menéndez was born to Cuban exile parents who fled to Los Angeles, California in 1964. Menéndez's parents expected to return to Cuba at any time and prepa ...
,
Ladette Randolph
Ladette Randolph is an American author and editor.
Ladette Randolph is the author of five books: three novels: ''Private Way', Haven’s Wake'' and ''A Sandhills Ballad'', a short story collection, ''This is Not the Tropics'', and a memoir, ''Leav ...
,
Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar (کاوه اکبر) is an Iranian-American poet and scholar.
Early life and education
Akbar was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1989, and grew up across the United States including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana. He move ...
and
Wells Tower.
Recognition
The anthology has earned national recognition. ''
Kirkus Reviews'' praised it as "
st reading for anyone interested in the present and future of America's arts and letters".
Pushcart Press was awarded the 1979 Carey Thomas Prize for Publisher of the Year by ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
''.
The Pushcart Prize series was honored with the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle in 2005, and the Poets & Writers/Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers award in 2006.
References
{{Authority control
American literary awards
American poetry awards
1976 establishments in New York (state)
Awards established in 1976