awards & fellowships

Grub Street Book Prize

We have a winner!

Silly Congratulations to Debra Allbery, winner of the 2010 Grub Street National Book Prize in Poetry for Fimbul-Winter. Allbery is the author of one previous book of poems, Walking Distance (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991) and the director of the MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Of Fimbul-Winter, final judge Jill McDonough wrote: “Debra Allbery's Fimbul-Winter is wide-ranging and densely populated. F. Martens’ Voyage to Spitzbergen, Milan Kundera, Meng Hao-jan. A housel dish, Cormac McCarthy, bonewort, The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Intelligence and empathy, ambition and appetite. Precise, precisely felt descriptions of “the dim settled silence of a bookshop,/frayed bindings and familiar foxed must,” of dreams of winter coats, of “the slow scuff/of my own heart.” Inside these poems, waiting rooms and offices fill with as much wonder, tenderness, and specificity as Vermeers, Orion, a mine fire burning a hundred years under Ohio. Still burning.”

In early 2011, Allbery will be visiting Grub Street from Asheville, NC for a reading, dinner reception and to lead a craft class for members; exact dates and times will be listed on our website by October 1st, 2010. McDonough chose three finalists: Kelle Groom's Five Kingdoms (Anhinga Press), Chana Bloch's Blood Honey (Autumn House Press), and Michael Meyerhofer's Blue Collar Eulogies (Steel Toe Books). All of these books, including Fimbul-Winter are available to borrow from our member library at 160 Boylston Street, 4th Floor. Congratulations to Debra and to the finalists, and continued gratitude to the generous benefactor who makes the Grub Street National Book Prize possible!

SillyThe winner of Grub Street's 2010 National Book Prize in Fiction is Vestal McIntyre for his novel Lake Overturn, published by Harper in 2009. McIntyre is the author of the story collection You Are Not the One (Carroll & Graf, 2004), was a guest author at last year’s Muse and the Marketplace conference, and will return to the conference in May 2010. Of Lake Overturn, Grub instructor and head juror Lisa Borders wrote: "McIntyre’s magnificent novel explores the social strata of a small town in Idaho in the 1980s. The prose is lush, the observations keen, and the plot engrossing to the last page; but what sets this book apart is McIntyre’s utter sympathy for all of his characters. From Connie, the fundamentalist whose reading of the Bible is too literal even for her own church, to Wanda, the addict who yearns to be a mother, to Enrique, a junior high school misfit who can occasionally be as cruel as his tormentors in his struggle for acceptance, the reader cannot help but be moved by the ways in which the good people of Eula, Idaho stumble, rise and grow." We also congratulate our Finalist, Scott Blackwood, for his excellent novel We Agreed To Meet Just Here (Western Michigan University Press, 2009).

SillyThe winner of Grub Street's 2009 National Book Prize in Poetry is Rick Barot for Want, published by Sarabande Books in 2008. Barot is the author of one previous book of poetry, The Darker Fall (Sarabande, 2002). Of Want, head juror Wendy Mnookin wrote: "Rick Barot pleases with the elegance of his precise language and formal control, but he wins us over with his stories. From the boy 'rollerblading/ naked in the house' to Adam, 'wishing his rib back,' Barot captures characters engaged in emotionally charged situations--in stories. In the opening poem, the speaker is 'wanting in' on the story. He gets in. And he takes the reader with him." This fall, Barot will be visiting us from Tacoma, WA for a reading, dinner reception and to lead a craft class for members.

There was one finalist: Sight Map by Brian Teare (University of California Press, 2009). We also acknowledge Craig Arnold's Made Flesh (Ausable, 2008) and are deeply saddened by his passing.

SillyAlan Cheuse won our 2009 National Book Prize in Fiction for his novel To Catch the Lightning (Sourcebooks). In addition to receiving a $1000 honorarium, Mr. Cheuse will visit Boston in spring of 2009 as a guest author at Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace literary conference. Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio's longtime "voice of books," is the author of four novels, three collections of short fiction, and the memoir Fall Out of Heaven. As a book commentator, Cheuse is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, The Idaho Review, and The Southern Review, among other places. He teaches in the Writing Program at George Mason University and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

There were two Finalists/Honorable Mentions: Don Lee for Wrack and Ruin (W. W. Norton) and Nora Eisenberg for When You Come Home (Curbstone Press). We are honored that such a distinguished and exciting group of writers has participated in the prize this year.

SillyIn addition, Dinty W. Moore won our 2008 National Book Prize in Non-Fiction for his memoir Between Panic and Desire (University of Nebraska Press). In addition to receiving a $1000 honorarium, Mr. Moore will visit Boston in spring of 2009 as a guest author at Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace literary conference and to lead a craft class exclusively for members. Terese Svoboda was named a finalist for Black Glasses Like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan (Graywolf). Dinty W. Moore is a professor of English at Ohio University and the author of several books, including The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction and The Accidental Buddhist: Mindfulness, Enlightenment, and Sitting Still. He has work forthcoming in The Normal School, Black Warrior Review, and Fourth Genre, and recent work in Gulf Coast, Iron Horse, and Chautauqua. He continues to serve as contributing editor to W.W. Norton's The Best Creative Nonfiction series.

SillyRebecca Seiferle won the 2008 Grub Street National Book Prize in Poetry for her collection Wild Tongue, published by Copper Canyon Press. Rebecca will be visiting Grub Street on Friday, December 5th at 7pm for a reading and reception. She will also be leading a members-only craft class on Saturday morning, December 6th, at 10AM. Finalists are Ellen Bass for The Human Line (Copper Canyon), Cate Marvin for Fragment of the Head of a Queen (Sarabande), and Reginald Shepherd for Fata Morgana (University of Pittsburgh Press). Christopher Hennessy judged.

Rebecca Seiferle is the founding editor of the online international poetry journal The Drunken Boat and the author of three previous books of poetry and two books of translations. She lives in Tucson, AZ. The Grub Street National Book Prize is awarded three times annually to a poet, fiction writer and non-fiction writer outside New England publishing beyond his or her first book.

More on the Prize

The Grub Street Book Prize is awarded three times annually to a writer outside New England publishing his or her second, third, fourth (or beyond...) book. First books are not eligible. Writers whose primary residence is Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut or Rhode Island are also not eligible.

Each winner receives a $1000 honorarium and a reading/book party at Grub Street's event space in downtown Boston. The reading and party are co-sponsored by a local independent bookstore, which will sell books at the event. Fiction and Non-Fiction writers are also invited as guest authors to the "Muse and the Marketplace" literary conference.

Winners will lead a craft class on a topic of his or her choice for a small group of Grub Street members. Grub Street will provide accommodations for one or two nights in Boston and cover all travel and meal expenses.

Though Grub Street's top criterion is the overall literary merit of the work submitted, the award committee especially encourages writers publishing with small presses, writers of short story collections, and writers of color to apply. We also want the award to benefit writers for whom a trip to Boston will likely expand their readership in a meaningful way.

Application requirements: (1) one copy of the author's most recent or upcoming book (Note: the publication date must be in either the year of the prize due date OR the year the winner is to visit Boston; in either case, the hardcover or paperback original must be available to booksellers by the time of the visit). (2) Curriculum vitae (3) 500-word synopsis of the proposed craft class (4) $10 tax-deductible donation/reading fee made out to Grub Street, Inc.

  • FICTION (story collection or novel): app. postmarked by October 15th, 2010 (notification by January 15th, 2011; Visit Boston for the Muse and the Marketplace conference, April 30-May 1, 2011). NOTE: Books published in 2010 and 2011 are eligible, as long as 2011 books are available in bound galley form by October 15th, 2010 and in hardcover or paperback by April 30th, 2011. We will not accept submissions in manuscript form for the fiction prize.
  • POETRY: applications postmarked by March 15th, 2010 (notification by 6.15.10; Visit Boston in November 2010 or January 2011) NOTE: Books published in 2009 and 2010 are eligible. Galleys and Manuscripts for 2010 books are acceptable as long as the book is available for purchase by November 2010.
  • NON-FICTION: applications postmarked by July 15th, 2010 (notification by 9.15.10; Visit Boston for Muse and Marketplace Conference, April 30-May 1, 2011) NOTE: Books published in 2010 and 2011 are eligible, as long as 2011 books are available in bound galley form by July 1st, 2010, and in hardcover or paperback by April 30th, 2011. We will not accept submissions in manuscript form for the non-fiction prize.

For more information about Grub Street and this year's Book Award, call 617.695.0075 or send an email to info@grubstreet.org. Please send all postal mail applications and inquiries to 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116.

Book Prize Winners

 Grub Street Poetry Revision Fellowship 2005

The Grub Street 2005 Poetry Revision Fellowship provided a cash grant, plus artistic and institutional support to an emerging poet from the greater Boston literary community. The fellowship was designed to help one poet revise and prepare for publication a first book-length project. The Grub Street Poetry Revision Fellow received a $2,500 cash stipend, and an in-depth review of his/her manuscript by an established writer. Applicants must have completed and compiled a draft of a book-length collection of poems. They must also agree to help other Grub Street writers during the six-month fellowship period by giving a reading and holding office hours twice a month.

The winner of the Grub Street 2005 Poetry Revision Fellowship was Anna Ross of Dorcester, MA. Anna holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she was poetry editor for Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. Her poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Republic, and Southwest Review, among other journals, and her translations have appeared in Poetry Wales and Rattapallax. She was the recipient of the 2004 GSU Review poetry prize, judged by C.K. Williams. She lives in Dorchester and is an adjunct instructor of writing at Boston University.

Below is a poem from Anna's winning manuscript, Methods of Brightness:

A Natural History

  • This year the icecaps balance
  • neat as thimble berries
  •           at the poles, letting
  • no drop spill until lightning girds the mountain,
  • leaving
  •           a scurf of tindered stump. On state roads
  • we keep coming up against it:
  • the charcoaled dirt waiting for reincarnation,
  • something catching
  •           in the forest.
  • Our well-pump broken, we walk miles,
  • try dry streambeds for luck,
  • tracing their salt-licked curl down
  • like dowsers whose sticks have gone deaf.
  • We've begun speaking in whispers.
  • You carry the bucket,
  •           while I try to feel the cool
  • tremor that comes as faith or knowing.
  • Then, in the morning paper,
  • the picture of a rescued black bear cub,
  • scorched paws bandaged,
  •           tongue a blurry pinked flag:
  • How the fire crept to his branch
  • above the others bellowing to quiet,
  • and then barked hands scraping him back
  • to this place where the coming rain smokes
  • as it tableskirts across the valley, then lifts
  • into a sky burned through again.

Grub Street Fiction Revision Fellowship 2004

We were thrilled to be able to offer Grub Street's second revision fellowship for fiction in 2004. Congratulations went to Christopher Helmuth, winner of the 2004 fellowship for his short story collection Camptown Races All Day Long. Originally from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Chris pays the bills by working in the Systems Biology Department at Harvard Medical School. He is a graduate of Emerson College's MFA program and is currently finishing work on his first collection. His stories have appeared in or are forthcoming from The Greensboro Review, Ascent, The Florida Review, The Mississippi Review (online), and Third Coast.

Chris tells us:

Too few opportunities like the Revision Fellowship exist for newer writers. Most of us write in the corners of lives, around our jobs, classes and other responsibilities-we manage a couple pages before bed, or on our lunch hour, or while the boss has an appointment with his dermatologist, frequently neglecting such luxuries as sleeping, eating, actually performing the jobs we're paid (how poorly) to do. All this we do without external support or affirmation for our writing for horrifically long stretches of time.

In my mind, winning the Revision Fellowship is grub street saying to me: "Thanks for scribbling in your notebook on the bus. Thanks for spending three months revising the sex scene with the ghost in the claw-foot bathtub only to cut it anyway. Thanks for living in a yellowing 8x10 room in a decaying building in a seedy neighborhood, when even the rat in your kitchen says, 'Man, this place is a dump'-so you can write. Your effort is worthwhile. We're here to help you with it. Now get to work."

Grub Street Fiction Revision Fellowship 2003

We were privileged to be able to offer Grub Street's first revision fellowship for fiction in 2003! The winner was Peggy Dostie, who won for her novel-in-progress Odle Leigh Who. Peggy has been working on Odle Leigh Who for six years and has produced an original, hilarious Southern gothic in the tradition of Confederacy of Dunces.

As the fellowship winner, Peggy received a $2,500 stipend and an honorarium for an established writer to provide comments to help her revise. In turn, she also supported others in the grub community by holding office hours and giving writing help at our office. At the end of six months, grub street connected her with a New York agent who read her revised manuscript.