the Prairie Schooner blog

Pastan on Poetry Daily

If you didn't notice it today, Linda Pastan's "Counting Sheep" is the featured poem on Poetry Daily! The poem is from our current issue.

It's a fine poem--one you should check out online if you didn't read it in our issue first.

From the Archives: "Thanksgiving" by Wendy Mnookin

Here's a little something by Wendy Mnookin from the Fall 2007 issue of Prairie Schooner to help observe the holiday. Everybody have a safe and happy weekend, and we'll try to do the same.

 

Thanksgiving

One glass of wine is good for you,

Mother says. And three are too many.

No one needs to leave the table crying.

Salt takes out the stain.

Or is it sugar?

 

The cat meows,

plaintively, repetitively.

Come in. Go out. Outside

 

the boundaries are clear.

I listen hard to the hiss

of the sun’s longing,

red leaves etched

by that other brilliance, sky.

 

(Learn more about the work of Wendy Mnookin at her web site.)

Our Best Americans

So the Best American Series released their 2011 versions last month, and there are several Prairie Schooner connections to note.

-Eric Barnes' story "Something Pretty, Something Beautiful" (Winter 2010) was anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories. Way to go, Eric!

-Floyd Skloot's essay "Something to Marvel At" (Fall 2010, read it here) was a notable in Best American Nonrequired Reading.

-Katie Chase's "The Sea that Leads to All Seas" (Winter 2010, read it here) and R.T. Smith's "The Red Jar" (Spring 2010, read it here) were notables in Best American Short Stories.

-Janet Abbott Dutton's "Old Enough" (Winter 2010), Josip Novakovich's "Cat Named Sobaka" (Spring 2010), and Tracy Seeley's "Cartographies of Change" (Summer 2010) were notables in Best American Essays.

It was a pretty good year for us, we thought. This bears this feeling out to a degree, I suppose.

In addition, congrats to some other UNL/Prairie Schooner connected folks, namely, Carrie Shipers ("Ghost Traffic", from Zone 3), Joy Castro ("Grip", from Fourth Genre), and Sarah Fawn Montgomery ("Ekphrasis: What My Grandfather Saw", from Fugue) for earning notable status in Best American Essays. Excellent work all around!

 

Our New Book Prize Coordinator

Prairie Schooner is excited to announce its new Book Prize Coordinator, Hali Sofala!

From Georgia, Sofala is a first-year Ph.D. student in poetry, with a specialization in women’s and ethnic studies, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and she holds an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sofala has most recently taught at Augusta State University, where she also worked as the Textbook Manager for the University’s campus bookstore, and her poems have been published in journals such as Anderbo, Inner Weather, The Literary Bohemian, and The Peacock’s Feet.

The annual Prairie Schooner Book Prize, which next opens for submissions on January 15, 2012, is in very good hands. Please help us in welcoming Hali Sofala to the Prairie Schooner team!

Removing the Interim Tag

Now in its 85^th year of publication, Prairie Schooner is pleased to announce the hiring of its new Managing Editor, Marianne Kunkel!

Holding an M.F.A. from the University of Florida and currently a third-year Ph.D. student in poetry, with a specialization in women’s and gender studies, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kunkel takes over as Managing Editor after her recent six-month stint as interim Managing Editor of Prairie Schooner.

A native of Alabama, Kunkel brings to the position of Managing Editor four years of publishing and editing experience working at the University Press of Florida, Naylor Publications, and the University of Nebraska Press. Also a talented poet, Kunkel has published poems in Columbia Poetry Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, and River Styx, and her chapbook, The Laughing Game, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.

Prairie Schooner’s Glenna Luschei Endowed Editor-in-Chief Kwame Dawes says of Kunkel, “It was clear to me that one of my most important tasks as new editor of Prairie Schooner would be to find a gifted and efficient Managing Editor. Fortunately, I did not have to look far. Marianne Kunkel brings a remarkable professionalism and efficiency to the task, and she does all of this with grace and enthusiasm. She is a gifted poet and splendid manager. The Schooner is in very capable hands.”

Please join us in welcoming Marianne Kunkel as Prairie Schooner’s new Managing Editor!