Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Inaugural Winners of Kirkus Prize Announced

G&A: The Contest Blog
10.24.14

Kirkus Reviews has announced the winners of its inaugural Kirkus Prize. Established this year to celebrate the eighty-first anniversary of Kirkus Reviews, the $50,000 prizes will be given annually for a book of fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature published in the previous year.

Lily King won the fiction prize for her novel Euphoria (Atlantic Monthly Press). The finalists were Siri Hustvedt for The Blazing World  (Simon & Schuster); Dinaw Mengestu for All Our Names (Knopf); Brian Morton for Florence Gordon (Houghton Mifflin); Bill Roorbach for The Remedy of Love (Algonquin Books); and Sarah Waters for The Paying Guests (Riverhead). Kate Christensen, Stephanie Valdez, and Marion Winik judged.

Roz Chast won the nonfiction prize for her graphic memoir Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Bloomsbury). The finalists were Leo Damrosch for Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World (Yale University Press); Elizabeth Kolbert for The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (Holt); Armand Marie Leroi for The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science (Viking); Thomas Piketty for Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Harvard University Press); and Bryan Stevenson for Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Spiegel & Grau). Sarah Bagby, Sloane Crosley, and Gregory McNamee judged.

Kate Samworth won the young readers’ literature prize for her picture book Aviary Wonders Inc.: Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual (Clarion). Claudette S. McLinn, Linda Sue Park, and John Edward Peters judged.

The 2015 Kirkus Prize will be awarded to books published between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015, and given a Kirkus Star review. For a traditional Kirkus review, authors, agents, or publishers may submit two copies of a book at least four to five months before its publication date. Self-published authors may order a Kirkus Indie review for $425 (for a review in seven to nine weeks) or $575 (for a review in four to six weeks). The editors of Kirkus Reviews estimate their reviewers cover eight to ten thousand books every year and give 10 percent of those books a Kirkus Star. Founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus, Kirkus Reviews is published twice monthly. 

Upper Left: Lily King, photo by Winky Lewis. Upper Right: Roz Chast, photo by Bill Franzen.

Muse

The Time Is Now
10.23.14

When you sit down to write, do you invoke a muse? Who is this muse, and what do you ask of them? Is this someone in your day-to-day life, or an unearthly entity—like the nine muses in Greek mythology? This week, write a personal essay about someone who brings you inspiration, courage, and clarity in moments of creative effort.

Blood Moon

The Time Is Now
10.16.14

Last Wednesday, a full lunar eclipse occurred in the early hours of the morning. Its red hue has earned the lunar event the title of a “blood moon.” It is part of a rare series of eclipses known as a “tetrad,” when the moon is completely covered by the earth’s shadow for four eclipses in a row. Some people believe it to be a sign of things to come, while others see it as simply a unique, astronomical event. This week, write about what eclipses, blood moons, and other unusual celestial events make you think about.

Augsburg University

MFA Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Cross-Genre
Minneapolis, MN
Application Deadline: 
Rolling Admissions
Application Fee: 
$0
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

Howling Bird Press, which administers its annual National Book Prize.

Students enrolled in the publishing concentration work as editors of a literary press that publishes a book-length collection of prose or poetry each year.

Mount St. Mary’s University

MFA Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction
Los Angeles, CA
Application Deadline: 
Rolling Admissions
Application Fee: 
$50
Affiliated Publications/Publishers: 

The Rush, Editor Juana Moriel-Payne

How to Fly a Horse

Caption: 

"Creating is not magic, but work. And anyone can create. Necessity is not the mother of invention. You are." In this forthcoming book from Doubleday, debut author Kevin Ashton explores humanity's greatest creations, and the seemingly unremarkable individuals, gradual steps, multiple failures, and ordinary acts behind them.

Genre: 
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
Doubleday
book trailer
Kevin Ashton

Birthday Buddies

The Time Is Now
10.8.14

There are only three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, but billions of people on the planet, so chances are, you share your birthday with at least one celebrity or public figure. This week, find out who your birthday buddies are, and learn a little bit about them. Notice any similarities? Write a short personal essay about how sharing your birthday with these people makes you feel. If you were born on this day, you’d be sharing the spotlight with John Lennon (and his son Sean), Camille Saint-Saëns, and King Charles X of France.

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