The winners of the Firecracker Awards, sponsored by the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP) and given to "the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence," have been announced. Each winner in the books category receives $2,000: $1,000 for the press and $1,000 for the author. Winners in the books categories are:
Fiction: Brother Alive by Zain Khalid (Grove Atlantic). Judges wrote: "The sentences in Brother Alive present like small, astonishing jewels, and the brilliance of this novel only accrues from there. Brother Alive's extraordinary writing develops into a propulsive narrative that is a genuine pleasure to follow--one that both surprises and delights. This novel is surreal, complex, puzzling, mind-expanding, imaginative, original, and presciently relevant to our times."
Creative Nonfiction: Optic Subwoof by Douglas Kearney (Wave Books). "Here are a few words that come to mind when reading Douglas Kearney's Optic Subwoof: sonic, polyphonic, urgent in delivery and in truth. Beginning with the book's first sentence--'Hush.'--readers are invited into a work of creative nonfiction where language is at its best and most playful and yet most serious. Optic Subwoof shows us how vital and limitless human creativity is."
Poetry: Customs by Solmaz Sharif (Graywolf Press). "In Customs, Solmaz Sharif pushes into a bold examination of the exhausting uncertainties and irreconcilable conditions of life in exile in the United States. Throughout, the poems in Customs feel fearless even in their fear. When the speaker sees, the poems skillfully call the reader to see with great caution and grief the external and internal powers over belonging as family members, citizens, and poets. This collection is thrilling to read--scathing, insightful, and original."
In addition, Christine Holbert, founder and publisher of Lost Horse Press, was presented with the 2023 Lord Nose Award, given in recognition of "a lifetime of superlative work in literary publishing."
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Nominees for the 2022 Shirley Jackson Awards, honoring "outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic," have been named in six categories and can be seen here. Winners will be announced July 15 at Readercon 32, in Quincy, Mass.