Fireworks for Festa del Redentore on the island of Giudecca in Venice, July 20. Image – Getty: Damiano Pesaresi
By Porter Anderson, Editor in Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Three books and two magazines awarded
AAs we work through a backlog of news on international book and publishing awards—limiting our coverage of competition from global markets to one story a day—today we take a look at the winners of the 2024 Firecracker Award, announced by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), a United States-based nonprofit organization that supports the work of small literary presses.
This year, the winning book will receive $2,000, half of which goes to the author or translator and half to the publisher. Each winner in a literary magazine category will receive $1,000.
As Publication prospects’ As industry readers worldwide know, the more than 900 member publishers of the US-based CLMP work in many formats: print and digital books, magazines, online publications and paperback novels.
One of CLMP’s primary missions is to “increase the organizational capacity” of such publishers. Founded in 1967, the organization states in its mission statement: “CLMP provides direct technical assistance to independent literary publishers and creates programs aimed at bringing together the many communities our work touches, including readers, writers, literary translators, booksellers, educators, and librarians.”
At this year’s awards ceremony, Jim Perlman, founder and publisher of Holy Cow! Press in Duluth, Minnesota, was presented with the Lord Nose Award, which recognizes lifetime achievement in literary publishing.
David Wilk, founder of the Lord Nose Award, writes: “Holy cow! Press has been publishing books regularly for 47 years. That’s an incredible achievement for any publisher, especially one dedicated to literary works – poetry, short stories, novels, biographies, memoirs and anthologies.”
“Jim Perlman and Holy Cow! embody what the Lord Nose Award is meant to honor – a lifelong commitment to literary publishing, a willingness to break new ground, take risks, and champion overlooked voices.”
Jim Perlman founded Holy Cow! Press in 1977.
Winner of the CLMP Firecracker Award 2024
The Firecracker Awards recognize self-published fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, as well as the best literary magazines in the debut and general excellence categories.
fiction
You watched from the sand
Short stories by Juliana Lamy
Red Hen Press
Jury comment:
“Juliana Lamy’s You watched from the sand is an impressive debut that mixes the magical with the everyday.
“These vivid, masterfully crafted stories weave the supernatural with the psychological and interpersonal, anchoring Lamy’s characters not only in their unique voices, physicalities, and sense of place, but also in the complex racial and class dynamics that shape their lives.
“The language in this collection is brimming with driving energy and there is not a weak story. Lamy’s impressive range is on full display here; this is probably just the beginning of an exciting literary career.”
Creative non-fiction
The Acceleration: Antarctica, Motherhood, and Nurturing Hope in a Warming World
By Elizabeth Rush
Milkweed Editions
Jury comment:
“The acceleration is a superb chronicle of the disappearing Antarctic glaciers at a critical crossroads, with the author grappling with the ethical question of what is involved in creating new life in a rapidly changing world.
“An incredible journey and an essential antidote to the masculinist settler-explorer narrative, The acceleration offers readers the opportunity to join together in refusing to turn Antarctica into a passive symbol of the coming apocalypse.
“This is an inspiring document of an expedition driven by a deep understanding of the consequences ahead. The book invites us, its readers, to turn around and find hope.”
poetry
The limitless heart
By Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Haymarket Books
Jury comment:
“The sublime and striking work of Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is beautifully presented in this collection of new and previously published works.
“With a comprehensive and intimate vision, Boyce-Taylor deals with longing, grief, displacement and motherhood as well as many other current and exciting themes.
“Whether she is reminiscing about the sensual surroundings of her homeland or mourning the loss of her beloved son, the poems are always lyrical, vivid, and each piece is filled with powerful affirmation and deep richness.
“This collection is an amazing achievement and a beautiful culmination of a lifetime’s work.”
Magazines: Debut
swing (“New texts that move”)
Year of foundation: 2023
Published by the nonprofit collective The Porch, Nashville
Jury comment:
“swing has boldly launched a magazine that brings together striking and sensitive texts from the South and beyond.
“This debut issue is marked by musical, deftly crafted poems, stories that evoke rich psychological and physical landscapes, and essays that embrace contradiction and indecision.
“The editors’ thoughtful and sometimes clever juxtapositions of the contributions made the journal a pleasure to read, with questions of place, family, change and uncertainty haunting its pages.
“We were attracted to the Journal by the clean and concise design of its print edition and website, as well as its welcoming tone and ethos. swing is a magazine that must be read cover to cover and a testament to the literary community that its publisher, The Porch, has built in Nashville over the years.”
Magazines: General Excellence
Words without borders
Year of foundation: 2003
See also: New Executive Director of Words Without Borders: Elisabeth Jaquette from ALTA
Jury comment:
“Words without borders is a rare literary and cultural space where one can encounter writings from over 140 countries.
“The work that Words Without borders published, reflects a radically comprehensive, global vision of literature as well as an unreserved commitment to the art of translation and the precise, dedicated work of translators.
“The publication’s mission to make world literature accessible to a wider audience is reflected in the careful curation of literature by country, subject and author, in the packages designed for teaching and in the comprehensive range of accessibility tools on the website.
“Publishing translations can be a complex and delicate matter. Words without borders has set the bar high with its consistent production of compelling, politically astute and diverse work.”
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