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
Mark Baumer, Yachts
"Sometimes I would rub my face in the corner where the blue carpet smelled like damp, burning goat candles and then my face would smell like damp, burning goat candles." Excerpt from Mark Baumer’s fiction manuscript, Yachts, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Brian Kubarycz, The Instruments I Used
"Fire stormed on ice that winter night. Down turned to coal inside my pillow. A sky above my ceiling and the Devil bright red in it, I ate God’s Holy Bible. One prophet at a time. Deep within my bowels, his mercies turned to sour meal." Excerpts from Brian Kubarycz’s fiction manuscript, The Instruments I Used, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Cindy St. John, Dream Vacation
"I don’t know the names of the stars or their constellations. I don’t know the names of clouds, I don’t know the names of trees, most flowers, most plants in general." Excerpts from Cindy St. John’s poetry manuscript, Dream Vacation, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
James Belflower, Doyen
"But I have so many questions summoned for ‘this is my body.’ / phantom on me, / is this tongue? / the current embodiment, foregoing organ / meat a page / light across a half eaten apple." Excerpts from James Belflower’s poetry manuscript, Doyen, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Elisabeth Workman, You Always Live Again
“whisperings in the dumpster / all lattices of hesitation to be pulled down by / invasive crawling networks of the underneath / always roiling or just always there…” Excerpts from Elisabeth Workman’s poetry manuscript, You Always Live Again, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Lauren Russell, What’s Hanging on the Hush
"Her huffy histrionics take no heckling, that / uppity puffed-up pastiche mishmash. / The hellion half-breed’s / hussyfooted a harvest, a windfall / ensnarled in her miscegenated sassy nappery." Excerpts from Lauren Russell’s poetry manuscript, What's Hanging on the Hush, a finalist for the 2015 TS Book Prize.
Bridget Brewer, excerpt from “Beasts of Revelation”
"A flash of lightning from outside the cave, a brief illumination: snake heads, so many snake heads, swaying inches from the tip of her nose. ‘Emmeline,’ the heads say together in a language not legible above ground. ‘O crooked, ugly Emmeline: you are blessed.’" -- from Bridget Brewer's Beasts of Revelation, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Five Poems by Kirsten Kaschock
"Take this frackwaste voice you wish / I’d use 4 truth instead of dare. You’ll want // to salt&bury it, so it don’t rise, but where’s / your shovel? Where’s the body?" Kirsten Kaschock's manuscript, Numbness, the Practice was semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Jeff T. Johnson, excerpts from “The Book / Or / The Woods”
"Y the monster has a deck of cards. The back of each a / forest. The monster lays a cross along discarded leaves. The / cards are invisible, but the monster knows they are there...." -- from Jeff T. Johnson's The Book / Or / The Woods, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Marty Cain, Two Poems
"I dream of my manifest body / and coexisting with toxic waste, I dream of cops / who murder babies, I dream of teachers who murder babies, / I dream of a doctor who says You want a boy / and pulls a cock from his drawer and glues it on / and it dangles flaccid and huge from our infant’s body ..." -- From Marty Cain's The Wound Is (Not) Real: A Memoir, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.