CutBank is delighted to announce the winners of our 2022 Chapbook Contest! Robust congratulations go to Myna Chang, Jordan Escobar, and Kate Lucas, whose chapbooks will be published by CutBank in 2023.
WINNER
The Potential of Radio and Rain by Myna Chang
About the Author:
Myna Chang’s work has been selected for Flash Fiction America (W.W. Norton), Best Small Fictions, and CRAFT, among others. She has won the Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the New Millennium Writings Award in Flash Fiction, and she hosts the speculative fiction discussion group Electric Sheep. Read more at MynaChang.com or @MynaChang.
What Our Judges Say:
“I'm obsessed with this collection. Haunting, vivid, lyrical (a word I generally hate when describing but it works here), choked with dust and burnout and longing like its protagonists.”
“The voice in this prose piece just flies off the page. I feel immersed in a world when I read it.”
“The tension of these stories builds and builds. I couldn’t stop reading.”
Runners-Up
Men with the Throats of Birds by Jordan Escobar
About the Author:
Jordan Escobar is a writer in Jamaica Plain, MA. He is a 2022 Djanikian Scholar in Poetry and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His work can be found in Zone 3, Willow Springs, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. He currently divides his time teaching at Emerson College and Babson College.
What Our Judges Say:
“I’m quite moved by the beauty and urgency of these poems. Escobar appears to be meditating on each subject as an act of preserving them.”
“Escobar has a facility for and appreciation of language that make his poems pretty visceral and meaty. I loved the repetition of animals, and land, and bodies, as well as the sweetness that comes through all of the tough imagery.”
“He writes with a textured lyricism that's balanced by the decidedly unromantic life of farm workers. Feels poignantly human and urgent, but not pushy or overwrought. Feels like a story that needs to be told.”
Heart of the Lonesome Galaxy by Kate Lucas
About the Author:
Kate Lucas's poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Sundog Lit, The Pinch, Lumina, 111O, and elsewhere. Her full-length poetry manuscript, In This Light, was a finalist for the 2022 Milkweed Editions Ballard Spahr prize. A former assistant poetry editor for Water~Stone Review, Kate has received grants and fellowships from Dickinson House, Pine Needles of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Loft Mentor Series. She lives in Minneapolis.
What Our Judges Say:
“I like the world/problem this writer has deposited the content into. It's a clever, analytical, distant avenue through which to explore closeness.”
“Lucas's language and visual and thematic forms are incredibly innovative, intriguing, and compelling.”
“Really a fan of this one — there's a thematic cohesiveness but a lot of surprises, too.”
Honorable Mentions
Congratulations and gratitude to all of our outstanding chapbook contest finalists!
A Guide to Knots by Candace Pearson
Rhythm Make a Riot by Abigail Minor
Illuminated Creatures by Angela Sucich
Strip, Astronaut by Samantha Padgett
Syntaxed by Cindy Juyoung Ok
Remains to See by Rose McLarney
What My Husband Told Me About the Woman He’s in Love with by Sharon Wahl
The CutBank Chapbook Contest honors three works of startling, evocative, and beautiful new writing in prose and poetry each year. To purchase previous chapbook winners, please visit our online store.