The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, CLMP, on June 6, 2019 announced the winners of the fifth annualFIRECRACKER AWARDS to a standing-room-only crowd at our awards ceremony held at Poets House in New York City. Given to recognize the importance of independent literary publishing, the FIRECRACKER AWARDS honor the best self- and independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence.
Additionally, Tender Buttons press, founded by poet Lee Ann Brown in 1989, received the LORD NOSE AWARD, given in recognition of a lifetime of superlative small press publishing.
Thanks to our amazing judges, and congratulations to the finalists and the winners! Be sure to add their books and magazines to your reading list!
Firecracker Award Winners
FICTION
Little Fish by Casey Plett
published by Arsenal Pulp Press
From the Judges
“In Little Fish, Casey Plett brings us fully into the world of her characters and lets us feel the fateful inevitability of their choices. Plett’s protagonist, Wendy, is searching for a hidden trans lineage in her own family tree. This heroic quest is at once deeply private and an enormously helpful way to think about what it means for any of us to come of age and become heroes of our own lives.”
CREATIVE NONFICTION
The Leftovers by Shaelyn Smith
published by Cleveland State University Poetry Center
From the Judges
“With prose that encourages a kind of infectious curiosity, Smith cracks open what writing about art can mean for how we read the world around us. The Leftovers is singularly engaging and as essential to our shelves as it is to our everyday dialogue.”
POETRY
City of the Future by Sesshu Foster published by Kaya Press
From the Judges
“City of the Future forces readers to rethink poetry, postcards, and the present by asking us to reimagine how we use language but also how language is used upon us. His work is one of utmost service. On a neighborly and communitarian level, Foster’s work documents and challenges injustice.”
MAGAZINE: BEST DEBUT
From the Judges
“This refreshing new publication is striking, inspiring, and smartly visionary. Leading the charge to nurture and publish works by artists and writers committed to social change with particular attention to works by women of color working on the margin of their discipline, Aster(ix) serves as a remarkable beacon for our times and beyond.”
MAGAZINE: GENERAL EXCELLENCE
From the Judges
“Inclusive, equitable, and visionary, ZYZZYVA has impressed the judges with its unfailing standards of quality, scope, and its consistent contribution to and support of a broad spectrum of literature and literary conversation. It is an outstanding and longstanding example of the vital role of literary magazines and journals in the world.”
Firecracker Award Finalists
FICTION
- A Bright and Pleading Dagger by Nicole Rivas, published by
Rose Metal Press
- All Roads Lead to Blood by Bonnie Chau, published by Santa Fe Writers Project
- Disoriental by Négar Djavadi, translated by Tina Kover, published by Europa Editions
- Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, published by Arsenal Pulp Press
- Little Fish by Casey Plett, published by Arsenal Pulp Press
- Mina by Kim Sagwa, translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan, published by Two Lines Press
- Strawberry Fields by Hilary Plum, published by Fence Books
- That Which Girls Conjure Will Help Them Survive
by Kristen Stone, published by Guillotine
- The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana, published by Dorothy, a publishing project
- Trick by Domenico Starnone, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri, published by Europa Editions
CREATIVE NONFICTION
- A Handbook of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer, published by Ugly Duckling Presse
- An Imperfect Rapture by Kelly Beard, published by Zone 3 Press
- Before They Left Us by Rosemary Ann Davis, published by Old Road Publishing
- False Calm: A Journey Through the Ghost Towns of Patagonia by María Sonia Cristoff, translated by Katherine Silver, published by Transit Books
- Letters from Max: A Book of Friendship by Sarah Ruhl and Max Ritvo, published by Milkweed Editions
- Mating in Captivity: A Memoir by Helen Zuman, published by She Writes Press
- To Float in the Space Between: A Life and Work in Conversation with the Life and Work of Etheridge Knight by Terrance Hayes, published by Wave Books
- No Archive Will Restore You by Julietta Singh, published by Punctum Books
- The Leftovers by Shaelyn Smith, published by Cleveland State University Poetry Center
POETRY
- Baby, I Don’t Care by Chelsey Minnis, published by Wave Books
- Body & Glass by Rodney Koeneke, published by Wave Books
- City of the Future by Sesshu Foster, published by Kaya Press
- Crosslight for Youngbird by Asiya Wadud, published by Nightboat Books
- Dissolve by Sherwin Bitsui, published by Copper Canyon Press
- GOOD MORNING AMERICA I AM HUNGRY AND ON FIRE by jamie mortara, published by YesYes Books
- Milk by Dorothea Lasky, published by Wave Books
- Post Traumatic Hood Disorder by David Tomas Martinez, published by Sarabande Books
- The Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods by Tishani Doshi, published by Copper Canyon Press
- You Will Always Be Someone from Somewhere Else by Dao Strom, translated by Ly Thuy Nguyen, published by AJAR Press
MAGAZINE: BEST DEBUT
- Aquifer: The Florida Review Online
- Aster(ix) Journal
- Full Bleed
- Headway Quarterly
- Poet’s Country
- The Arkansas International
- The Bare Life Review
- The Second Shelf: A Quarterly of Rare Books and Words by Women
- Twyckenham Notes
- Under a Warm Green Linden
MAGAZINE: GENERAL EXCELLENCE
- Creative Nonfiction
- Poetry
- Raleigh Review
- Sinister Wisdom
- The Cincinnati Review
- The Common
- The Literary Review
- Washington Square Review
- Water~Stone Review
- ZYZZYVA
This Year’s Firecracker Judges
FICTION: Andrea Lawler (author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl), Veronica Santiago Lui (founder of Word Up Bookshop/Libreía Comunitaria), and Robert Pollock (coordinator of the Prison Writing Program at PEN America).
CREATIVE NONFICTION: Jennifer Baker (editor of Everyday People: The Color of Life–A Short Story Anthology), Jeff Deutsch (director of Seminary Co-op Bookstores), and Jyothi Natarajan (editorial director of Asian American Writers’ Workshop).
POETRY: Farrah Field (co-founder of Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop), erica kaufman (author of INSTANT CLASSIC), and Dean Rader (author of Landscape Portrait Figure Form).
MAGAZINES: Maribeth Batcha (publisher of One Story), Duriel E. Harris (editor of Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora), and Katie Raissian (publisher of Stonecutter).
About the Firecracker Awards
The CLMP Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature celebrate books and magazines that make a sparkling contribution to our literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide.
A national publicity campaign spotlights and promotes our winning titles each year. Working with the American Booksellers Association, we feature the Firecracker Award winners through Bookselling This Week and a national Red Box Mailing that goes out to independent booksellers across the country.
Read more about the Firecracker Awards.
