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
Sandy Florian, The Chair
"Having climbed all five thousand stairs of the towering high-rise, OUR AUTHOR, in a red state of rage, erupts wildly into the room, and there, seeing that he was late to the conference, seeing that there were already so many authors at the table already, a million authors with a billion inflections, OUR AUTHOR thinks to himself that to pose even a single assertion, to converse with even a single poet, simply would not do...." Excerpts from Sandy Florian’s prose manuscript, The Chair, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Lara Glenum, JUNK SHOT
“We r strapped // 2 eachother / like some species // of occult glamour // I discharge my titters / over the bodies piling out // of the glass / The reanimation of my pie // in a funk of vex….” Excerpts from Lara Glenum’s poetry manuscript, JUNK SHOT, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Genya Turovskaya, The World Is Not The World
"The stars are different here, the stars do not make sense / I can connect these burning dots / There is a hummingbird / There a dancing bear / There a face with night pouring out of the black sockets of its eyes...." Excerpts from Genya Turovskaya’s poetry manuscript, The World Is Not The World, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Emily Carr, Name Your Bird Without A Gun
"Her voice is like a carnation sucking water, sucking blue. / She drinks. Hello she says. / Yes she says like the lion of St. Mark, with liquid nonchalance…." Excerpts from Emily Carr’s hybrid manuscript, Name Your Bird Without A Gun: A Tarot Novel, 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.
Zeeshan Pathan, “The Minister of Disturbances”
"This is my prayer. The doors of the night / Have been eaten by termites. I am just beginning." -- from Zeeshan Pathan's The Minister of Disturbances, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Never Angeline Nørth, excerpts from “Sea-Witch”
"Like everything, all of Sea-Witch contains her history. Every part of her has bits of what has come before." — from Never Angeline Nørth 's Sea-Witch, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.
Vincent James, excerpt from “Doomsday”
"We’d never been kept out past dusk. Never bottomed out to transcendent panorama. Never thrived in the unholy glower of the mountain-perched bighorns." — from Vincent James' Doomsday, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Kami Westhoff, excerpts from “What the Blood Tells You to Be”
"The sky is already more bruise than bright.... We say to each other You never know, though we’re mothers. We’ve never not known." — from Kami Westhoff's What the Blood Tells You to Be, shortlisted for Tarpaulin Sky's 2019 Book Awards.