As summer comes to a close (seriously, where did it go!?!?), we’re excited to ring in the changing seasons with an excellent list of manuscripts: the short list for the Spring 2017 Black River Chapbook Competition! From over 600 entries, we’ve narrowed things down to 17 semi-finalists and 8 finalists. (As always, this was definitely not easy! We read and agonized over many more than these 25 exciting, well-crafted entries. There are excellent manuscripts that aren’t reflected in this list, and there were a few chaps we loved that were withdrawn along the way. We appreciate every one of you deeply. Please keep making our jobs difficult.)
Entries were read blind by an editorial panel consisting of judges (previous BRCC winners and published finalists) and BLP editors. Entries were kept blind until today–so we can unveil the lists to you!
To all the semi-finalists, congrats & thank you! We will announce the winner from among our list of finalists shortly.
FINALISTS (alphabetical)
Sore Songs by Heather June Gibbons (poetry)
No Good for Digging by Dustin M. Hoffman (fiction)
Inheritance by Taylor Johnson (poetry)
dolores in spanish is pain, dolores in lolita is a girl by Ashley Miranda (poetry)
Please Find Us by Wendy Oleson (fiction)
Smoke-Girl by Simone Person (poetry)
Primitivity by Amy Sayre Baptista (fiction)
Peripheral by Tessa Yang (fiction)
SEMI-FINALISTS (alphabetical)
Can We Agree I Am Invisible by Josh Bettinger (poetry)
Formaldehyde by Shonté Daniels (poetry)
When You Find Yourself at the Center of the Earth by Daniel DiFranco (fiction)
Harm’s Way by Luiza Flynn-Goodlett (poetry)
Tales from Weird Pig by Robert Long Foreman (fiction)
Howled Me Down: Stories by Erica Hussey (fiction)
Grasp This Salt by Erin Kae (poetry)
birthbone/deathbone by Tony Mancus (poetry)
Scaring the Horses and other stories by Jane McDermott (fiction)
Mobile Devices Can’t Smell Honeysuckle by John Meyers (fiction)
Final Girl by Lauren Milici (poetry)
Power Plays by Jessica Morey-Collins (poetry)
the practice of devotion Elizabeth Myhr (poetry)
Invisible Friends, In Technicolor by Eric Schlich (fiction)
[redacted] (fiction)
Language Born of Territory by Sonja Swift (poetry)
Below the Heart by Vickie Weaver (fiction)