The Kevin McIlvoy Book Prize
In honor of Kevin "Mc" McIlvoy, who passed away suddenly on September 30, 2022, WTAW is pleased to have established the annual Kevin Mc McIlvoy Book Prize for an unpublished book of prose (novel, memoir, narrative nonfiction, collection of stories or essays, hybrid forms).
Submissions opened September 30, 2023 and ran through November 15, 2023. The winner receives book publication with a standard publishing contract that pays royalties, a $2500 prize, and 25 copies of their book. Nina McConigley, Joan Silber, and Peter Turchi served as final judges.
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Mc was the author of One Kind Favor, a novel he said he knew was the most important work of his life. During six decades of commitment to his art, he published five other novels: At the Gate of All Wonder (Tupelo) , Hyssop (TriQuarterly Press), Little Peg (Antheneum/Macmillan), The Fifth Station (Algonquin Books), and A Waltz (Lynx House Press); a short story collection, The Complete History of New Mexico (Graywolf); a book of short fictions and prose poems, 57 Octaves Below Middle C (Four Way Books); and, most recently, numerous poems. His short fiction appeared in Harper’s, Southern Review, Ploughshares, Missouri Review, and many other literary magazines.
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WTAW published Kevin McIlvoy's last work of fiction IS IT SO? GLIMPSES, GLYPHS & FOUND NOVELS on November 7, 2023. Find Kevin McIlvoy's One Kind Favor and more great books in our bookshop. Read Mc's testimony about his experience publishing with WTAW Press.
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We are pleased to announce the results of the first annual Kevin McIlvoy Book Prize
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WINNER
THE AGE OF MIGRATION, Kai Maristed
FINALISTS (Alphabetical order by last name)
ORPHANS, Ryan Burden
PARADISE F*@CKED! Janice Margolis
THE VIVALDI CHURCH, Gregory Spatz
RIVER IN THE HOUSE, Tracy Winn
SEMIFINALISTS
THE PERFECT, Adam Klein
SCROLL OF STARS, Michael Lukas
OFELIA AND NORMA, Donna Miscolta
STRANGE TROUBLE, Naomi Williams
Congratulations to all. Many thanks to our final judges, and to everyone who submitted a manuscript. We look forward to reading the next contest submissions.
ABOUT THE AGE OF MIGRATION
The Age of Migration gives us a glimpse into people's lives yearning to comprehend their place in the world fully. Through an array of voices, Kai Maristed evokes the universal and the unique in characters who are traveling unknown territories, both geographically and personally. These stories are full of discoveries, a book meant for the explorer in all of us mapping the familiar in new ways.
—Nina McConigley, author of Cowboys and East Indians, winner of the PEN Open Book Award
The Age of Migration is worldly in all senses. These are remarkable stories, full of beautiful urgencies, with indelible characters who get themselves in trouble all over the globe. A terrific book.
—Joan Silber, author of Secrets of Happiness and Improvement
The Age of Migration takes readers both around the world and deep into the worlds of its characters, some of whom are mid-flight, some of whom think they’ve discovered a home. They know exactly what they’re getting themselves into, until they find themselves in peril. In this remarkably wide-ranging collection, Kai Maristed demonstrates a masterful ability to imagine her way into the lives of others and—even more impressive—connect them to ours.
—Peter Turchi, author of Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, KAI MARISTED
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After starting out in journalism and radio drama in Germany, Kai Maristed published in the US the novels Out After Dark (a Pen/Hemingway finalist), Fall, and Broken Ground (praised by John Coetzee), and the story collection Belong to Me (starred by Publishers Weekly.) Her stories and essays have appeared in, for example, The Kenyon Review, The American Voice, StoryQuarterly, The American Scholar, Zoetrope, The Anchor Essay Annual, AGNI, Ploughshares, and The Iowa Review. She reviews books in translation and writes on French culture and politics. Kai Maristed is the founder and CEO of the global anti-poverty NGO Technology Exchange Lab. Visit her website for more.