Iowa Alumnus Wins Three-thousand-dollar First Book Prize [1]
Daniel Khalastchi of Milwaukee has been named the winner of Tupelo Press’s tenth annual First Book Award [2] for his poetry collection The Maturation of Man. He will receive three thousand dollars, and his debut book, selected by editors of College of Charleston's Crazyhorse [3] literary journal and Tupelo Press, will be published by the Massachusetts-based independent press.
Khalastchi, whose work has appeared in jubilat [4], Ninth Letter [5], and Court Green [6], among other journals, is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop [7] and a former fellow of the Fine Arts Work Center [8] in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Eleven finalists for the award were also announced. They are:
Ari Banias [9] of New York City for One the Whistler, One the Dog
Laurie Capps of Austin, Texas, for Modern Recluse
Brett Foster of Wheaton, Illinois, for The Garbage Eater
Christina Hutchins [10] of Albany, California, for World Without
Tanya Larkin of Somerville, Massachusetts, for Enemy Love Song
Dawn Lonsinger [11] of Salt Lake City for fatal light awareness
Jynne Martin of New York City for We Mammals in Hospitable Times
Kathy Nilsson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Black Lemons
Addie Palin of Chicago for The Cautery
Juliet Rodeman of Columbia, Missouri, for Tropics of Petticoats
Amanda Rachelle Warren [12] of Aiken, South Carolina, for Some Grain of Absolute Among the Trembling
The deadline to enter manuscripts for next year’s prize is April 15, 2010.
[Correction: Due to inaccurate information provided by the sponsoring organization, the cash value of the First Book Award was incorrectly stated in the August 3, 2009 blog post. The First Book Award is worth three thousand dollars.]