In Utero
EXCERPTS FROM THE LONGLISTS & SHORTLISTS
FOR THE TARPAULIN SKY BOOK AWARDS
IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
In Utero
EXCERPTS FROM THE LONGLISTS & SHORTLISTS FOR THE TARPAULIN SKY BOOK AWARDS
IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
J’Lyn Chapman, Our Last Days
"I want to help you understand what it is to kill something you have watched, but more so, what it is to kill something you have found beautiful." Excerpts from J'Lyn Chapman’s cross-genre manuscript, Our Last Days, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Alexis Orgera, You Don’t Mind: A Memorabilia
"Over a period of months a few years into his disease, my demented father penciled hundreds of thumbprint-sized, broken circles into the pages of a legal pad. An act of obsession or devil’s possession in the starburst of decline ..." Excerpts from Alexis Orgera’s cross-genre manuscript, You Don't Mind: A Memorabilia, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Alexandra Dillard, How We Tend To Fragile Things
"Death followed her so I did too. He cut her hair and I wore her clothes. When Death lit her cigarettes I mixed her drinks." Excerpts from Alexandra Dillard’s poetry manuscript, How We Tend To Fragile Things, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Colin Post, lynx perpetual lynx
"This map of iterations is no more a marked surfys, but rather the luscent screan hung before each port. The arrivals are no more marked in ink, but rather arrayed in leight." Excerpts from Colin Post’s hybrid-genre manuscript, lynx perpetual lynx, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Marty Cain, Kids of the Black Hole
"this is my confessional poem / this is my poem which rises from the dead / this is my poem which eats lesser poems...." Excerpts from Marty Cain’s poetry manuscript, Kids of the Black Hole, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Amy Thomas, Lung Song
"In the night, your mouth gapes and I make a y incision along my own collarbones, flesh peeling away with a sugared lip...." Excerpts from Amy Thomas’s poetry manuscript, Lung Song, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
MR Sheffield, We Are the Blood
"Lil Kim was important to physics. She came up with the 'Gigantic Shit Ton of Shit We Cannot Understand Theory' which attempts to make sense of the ways in which the universe can be so fundamentally fucked the hell up." Short fictions from MR Sheffield’s manuscript, We Are the Blood, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Vanessa Roveto, The Clinic
Medical practice as psycho-erotic soap opera. A mad philosophical speculation, a pseudo-scientific meditation. This is a horror show. Excerpts from Vanessa Roveto’s hybrid-genre manuscript, The Clinic, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Jacqueline Kari, TWA: A Masque
Picking apart apart the bones of the Child ballad, “The Twa Sisters,” reinterpreting its tale of sororicide and retribution as a a masque that glitters with constellations of love triangles, a katabatic trip to graveland, and the yoked fates of two sisters twinned from their balladic, fairy-tale archetypes. Excerpts from Jacqueline Kari's poetry manuscript, TWA: A Masque, finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Megin Jiménez, Lone Stories
"The Unborn knew this: We needed a beauty queen shooting wolves from a plane. We needed a cowboy in the house. We needed blue eyes hatched in cornfield silos. We needed the destruction that can only come from victory. We needed the hyphenated snap of Northamerican efficiency sounding universal in throats galore." Excerpts from Megin Jiménez’s poetry manuscript, Lone Stories, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.