Announcing Our 2019 Titles

Augury Books is delighted to announce our 2019 titles! Congratulations to t’ai freedom ford whose poetry collection & more black, chosen from our January Open Reading Period, will be published in the spring, and Arisa White, whose hybrid-memoir Who’s Your Daddy? will be published in the fall. 

This year we received over 550 submissions during our open reading period and were thrilled to discover so many manuscripts of great promise. We commend the many talented authors who sent us their work and are grateful for the opportunity to read their manuscripts!

About the author:

t’ai freedom ford is a New York City high school English teacher and Cave Canem Fellow. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in The African American Review, Apogee, Bomb Magazine, Calyx, Drunken Boat, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Kweli, Tin House, Obsidian, Poetry and others. Her work has also been featured in several anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color. Winner of the 2015 To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize, her first poetry collection, how to get over is available from Red Hen Press. t’ai lives and loves in Brooklyn where she is an editor at No, Dear Magazine.

About the book:

From the author: & more black is a collection of what ford calls “Black-ass sonnets” that take their cues from Wanda Coleman’s American Sonnets. For ford, the word “American” conjures the spirit of her ancestors. In that way, the poems are rebellious, outspoken and, as she says, “take no shit.” They investigate Black art, Black bodies, Black sexuality, and Black language, unapologetically and with a capital B.

 

About the author:

Cave Canem graduate fellow Arisa White is the author of Post Pardon, Hurrah’s Nest, A Penny Saved and Black Pearl. Her book You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened was nominated for the 29th Lambda Literary Award and the chapbook “Fishing Walking” & Other Bedtime Stories for My Wife won the inaugural Per Diem Poetry Prize. As the creator of the Beautiful Things Project, Arisa curates cultural events and artistic collaborations that center narratives of queer and trans people of color. She serves on the board of directors for Nomadic Press and is an assistant professor at Colby College. arisawhite.com

About the book:

Arisa White’s Who’s Your Daddy?, a hybrid memoir combining poetry and creative nonfiction, is a meditation on paternal absences, intergenerational trauma, and toxic masculinity. Who’s Your Daddy? asks us to consider how the relationships we are born into can govern us, even through absence, and shape the dynamics we find and forge as we grow. White lyrically moves across distance and time, from Brooklyn to California to Guyana. Her book enacts rituals that plumb the interior reaches of the heart to assemble disconnected and estranged parts into something whole, tender, and strong. 

RECAP: CLMP's Firecracker Awards Winners Announced

Sara Schaff with her book, Say Something Nice About Me, at the CLMP Firecracker Awards Ceremony. Photo: Roberta Schine

Recently, our author Sara Schaff’s debut short fiction collection Say Something Nice About Me was included as a finalist for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Firecracker Awards. The CLMP Firecracker Awards are divided by category into Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Magazines Best Debut, and Magazines General Excellence. At the third annual awards ceremony, the 2017 winners were announced: in Fiction, Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Deep Vellum); in Creative Nonfiction, Calamities by Renee Gladman (Wave Books); in Poetry, Buck Studies by Douglas Kearney (Fence Books); and Bennington Review and Prairie Schooner in Magazines Best Debut and General Excellence, respectively.

In addition to the Firecracker Awards, CLMP presented the first Lord Nose Award, in memory of Jargon Society publisher Jonathan Williams, to Bruce McPherson of McPherson and Co.

As a small press, we’re honored to have a title considered for the Firecracker Awards a second time (the first being Halina Duraj’s The Family Cannon), and incredibly proud of Sara Schaff for her accomplishment. Below are a few photos from the ceremony, held on June 7th at Poets House.

 

Bridget Hughes announcing the Magazines category winners. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Laura Swearingen-Steadwell announcing. Photo: Sara Schaff

Jeffrey Lependorf, CLMP Executive Director, giving closing remarks. Photo: Nicolas Amara

A selection of finalists displayed at the ceremony. Photo: Sara Schaff

Patricia Spears-Jones announcing the winner of the Poetry category. Photo: Nicolas Amara

LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs accepting the Poetry award on behalf of Douglas Kearney. Photo: Nicolas Amara

Pia Padrone announcing the Fiction winner. Photo: Sara Schaff

 

We extend our congratulations to all of this year’s Firecracker winners!


 

More on Say Something Nice About Me

Randall Horton's Hook Wins GLCA New Writers Award for 2017

We are incredibly proud to acknowledge that Randall Horton’s Hook has won the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award for 2017 in the category of creative nonfiction. Other titles earning the GLCA New Writers Award this year include Nate Marshall’s Wild Hundreds in the category of poetry, and Charles Boyer’s History’s Child in the category of fiction.

 

As a small press, we consider this recognition a great honor, extending our congratulations to Randall and our gracious thanks to the Great Lakes College Association.

 

Learn more about Hook here.

PSA’s Annual Awards and Chapbook Fellowships: Accepting Submissions Through December 22nd

The Poetry Society of America has announced that it is currently accepting a variety of submissions for poets at all stages in their career now through December 22nd. Submissions are free for members and you are welcome to submit work to all seven categories with no more than one entry for each.

From a recent PSA message:

Annual Awards judges include:
Cyrus Cassells, Eduardo Corral, Elaine Equi, Yona Harvey, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Laura Kasischke, Jennifer Moxley, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Carmen Giménez Smith, and others

Chapbook judges:
Rigoberto González, Linda Gregerson, Major Jackson, and Marilyn Nelson

Each year from October to December the Poetry Society offers contests for poets at all stages of their careers, from a prize for high school students, to our Chapbook Fellowships for poets who have not yet published a full-length collection, to our first book contest, and our award for a poet over forty who has published no more than one book.

We’re thrilled to announce we’re currently accepting submissions, which are free to members.

Begin your submission today. Good luck!

 

See the PSA’s website for more information on individual contests and submission guidelines.

‘The Family Cannon’ Receives Eric Hoffer Award for Cover Art

Congratulations to Dave Bledsoe and Daniel Estrella, recipients of the 2015 Eric Hoffer da Vinci Eye award for exceptional cover art for The Family Cannon (author Halina Duraj, Augury Books, 2014).

Other winners include Tina Freeman and Morgan Northrop for Artist Spaces (University of LA at Lafayette Press) and Teresa Jordan for Years of Living Virtuously (Weekends Off) (Counterpoint Press).

To view the complete lists of winners for 2015, visit the Eric Hoffer website.

More on Halina Duraj and The Family Cannon

CLMP Firecracker Reading, Featuring Finalist Halina Duraj’s ‘The Family Cannon’

Space Colony Art from the 1970s, courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses  (CLMP) is holding a reading this Sunday afternoon, featuring the finalists for their new Firecracker Awards, including Halina Duraj for The Family Cannon (Augury Books, 2014).

The reading will take place from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.,  during the 16th Annual Lit Mag Fair at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Other finalists and publishers include, Bonnie Friedman (Etruscan Press), Vikas K. Menon and Dan Goldman (Rattapallax), Jesse Lonergan (NBM Publishing), Hubert & Kerascoet (NBM Publishing), Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon (NBM Publishing).

Winners of the Firecracker Award will be announced on May 27th at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Join Augury Books at Housing Works on Sunday as editor Kate Angus reads from The Family Cannon.

More on THE FAMILY CANNON

Halina Duraj’s The Family Cannon Nominated for CLMP Firecracker Award

From E. Weiß’s Bilderatlas der Sternenwelt (1888), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) released the nominees for their new Firecracker Awards. Inspired by the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards, CLMP’s awards strive to honor and support literary works from independent publishers and self-published writers.

The finalists are divided into six categories: creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, young adult, graphic novels, and literary magazines. Among them is Augury author Halina Duraj for her book of short stories, The Family Cannon. Other finalists across categories include Jeffery Renard AllenMartha Baillie, Bonnie Friedman, Allen Crawford, and Ransom Riggs, as well as several literary magazines, including 6 x 6, A Public Space, and Mosaic. Tin House, Graywolf Press, Ahsahta Press, and Tender Buttons Press are all among the publishers that have titles shortlisted. The winners in each group will be announced on May 27th at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

To see the complete shortlists for the Firecracker Awards, view CLMP’s press release.

For more about Halina Duraj and The Family Cannon, click here.

Finalists For Lambda Literary Awards Announced

From Baude Cordier’s “Belle, bonne, sage” (1350-1400), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The finalists for the 27th annual Lambda Literary Awards have been announced. The Lambda Literary Awards honor the best LBGTQ literature of the year in 24 categories, including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Among the nominees for 2015 is Augury friend Shelly Oria. Other noteworthy finalists include Ana Castillo, Tom Spanbauer, Danez Smith, Lenelle Moïse, and La JohnJoseph. The winners will be declared at the awards ceremony on Monday, June 1st in New York City.

For the complete list of finalists and their works, visit the Lambda Literary Awards website.

Augury Books Nominated for Beyond the Margins' 'Above and Beyond' Award

A selection from Shin-Bijutsukai, 1901-02. Courtesy of the Public Domain Review

 

Augury Books has recently been nominated for the Above and Beyond Award, started by Boston-based writers’ blog Beyond the Margins to recognize the work of organizations that make a great contribution to the writing community. Due to such a large number of nominees and nominations, Beyond the Margins has decided to showcase all nominees on their website. It is an honor to be included among such organizations as Cave Canem, the New York Writers Workshop, and PEN Center USA. Unfortunately, Beyond the Margins has also just recently ended their journey as a web resource for the writing community. We deeply thank those who nominated and and voted for us to be a part of the last round of this award.

Support the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Bringing Literature to Public Classrooms

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is running a DonateNow campaign for contributions of any size to help support their annual award for fiction, their public reading series, and the Writers in Schools Program, which brings writers and over 1,800 copies of their books to the classrooms of D.C. public schools.

PEN/Faulkner’s mission is to promote literature in the classroom by way of adequate writing materials, new books, and author visits for high school students. Recently, Karen Joy Fowler was awarded the 34th PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and Joan Silber was invited to talk with northeast D.C. students about writing.

The foundation’s initiatives are funded in large part by donations, and PEN/Faulkner Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so contributions are tax-deductible.

Visit this link for more information on the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, or click here to go directly to the donation page. As friends of the foundation, we greatly applaud any support you are able to give.

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!