Small New Jersey Literary Press Picks Six for Shot at Annual Pushcart Prize Recognizing Best of 2011

Dec. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Poets Wear Prada, a small literary press based in Hoboken, NJ, announced today its six nominations for the 36th Annual Pushcart Prize, the coveted award signaling the best work published by small presses the previous year. Nominations for the Pushcart Prize are made by little magazine (print and online) and small book press editors. Editors can nominate poems, short stories, essays, chapters from novels, or “literary whatnots” -- up to six selections -- by the postmark deadline of December 1. Translations, reprints, and both traditional and experimental writing are welcomed. Bill Henderson with the editors of the Pushcart Press select from the nominations for inclusion in an annual anthology printed and distributed with W.W. Norton since 1976.

Nominated works from Poets Wear Prada this year include “Desire” by Chocolate Waters from her recently released (October 2011), critically acclaimed chapbook “The Woman Who Wouldn’t Shake Hands,” a sometimes humorous often poignant collection of poems reflecting on a failed romance, and “A Hack’s Elusive Love or Arthur Miller Lives” by Davidson Garrett from the chapbook anthology of the Ninth Annual All Out Arts’ Fresh Fruit Festival, “Pears, Prose & Poetry,” edited by Caitlin Foster and Roxanne Hoffman, released July 2011. “Desire” first appeared in Soundzine, Lucky Issue #13, 2011. “A Hack’s Elusive Love or Arthur Miller Lives” was previously published in “Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades Anthology,” edited by Paul Nash and Denise La Neve, The Poets Press, 2010.

From “Pears, Prose & Poetry,” four additional selections were nominated: “At the Barber’s” by Dean Kostos, “Just How Crazy Brenda Is” by Melinda Goodman, “Magic Bistro” by Dorothy Friedman August, and “St. Vincent’s” by John Marcus Powell. “At the Barber’s” first appeared in "OCHO 22," edited by Miguel Murphy, MiPOesias, 2009. “Just How Crazy Brenda Is” was previously published in "Middle Sister" by Melinda Goodman, MSG Press, 1987, and "Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time: An Anthology," edited by Carl Morse and Joan Larkin, St. Martin’s Press, 1988.

“This year’s selection process was particularly challenging,” said publisher Roxanne Hoffman, “as all of the 19 poems included in ‘Pears, Prose & Poetry,’ selected from the over fifty solicited submissions by some of the best local poets in the GLBT community, are ‘winners,’ all deserving recognition.”

Poets Wear Prada, a small literary press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, was founded in October, 2006, to develop and promote new and established writers of narrative and lyrical poetry. Poets previously nominated by the press include Iris Berman, Carol Wierzbicki, Michael Montlack, Susan Maurer, Erik La Prade, Gil Fagiani, Bob Heman, Maria Lisella and Laura Vookles. Poets Wear Prada blogs at http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/. Titles are available at Amazon.com, BN.com, and CreateSpace.com, as well as directly from the publisher.

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Poets Wear Prada is a small literary press based in Hoboken, New Jersey, devoted to introducing new authors through high-quality chapbooks primarily of poetry, since October 2006. Please visit us at: http://pwpbooks.blogspot.com/. "Have you had your poetry today?"