The Pushcart Prize XXXV: Best of the Small Presses 2011 Edition (The Pushcart Prize Anthologies, 35) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1888889594 ISBN 13: 9781888889598

Publisher: Pushcart Press, 2010

Synopsis

In The Pushcart Prize XXXV more than sixty selections of brilliant short stories, essays, and poetry have been picked from thousands of nominations. This is a communal effort by the Pushcart Press staff, contributing editors, and hundreds of small presses. For this edition distinguished poets Julie Sheehan and Tom Sleigh served as poetry editors. The result is an introduction to a literary world that few readers have access to, where much of today's important new writing is published, far from the commercial influence of the conglomerates.In reviewing last year's edition, Donna Seaman of Booklist commented: "A brimming, vibrant anthology-the perfect introduction to new writers and adventurous new work by established writers . . . extraordinary in its range of voices and subjects. Here is literature to have and to hold."The Pushcart Prize has been chosen for the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement recognition by the National Book Critics Circle and the Writers for Writers award from Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble.

About this title

About the Authors

Bill Henderson is the founder and editor of the Pushcart Prize. He received the 2006 National Book Critic Circle’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Poets & Writers / Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. He is also the author of several memoirs, including All My Dogs: A Life. The founder of the Lead Pencil Club, Henderson lives on Long Island and In Maine where he runs the Pushcart bookstore – “the world’s smallest bookstore.”

More than 200 Contributing Editors and CO-Editors help select the annual volumes of The Pushcart Prize. The Pushcart Prize Editors come from almost every state in the USA and around the world. Every year more than 8,000 nominations are received for the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

Henderson reminds us in the latest anthology showcasing the "best" poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from this year's crop of literary magazines, that 2010 was a monumental year for the small press: Paul Harding's Tinkers, published by Bellevue, won the Pulitzer Prize, after all. And these Pushcart picks generally substantiate Henderson's claim that contemporary literature is thriving, not dying. Like many "best of" assemblages, it is best enjoyed in small portions, thus avoiding the risk of taking in too many at a time, at which point the attempt for quirkiness and resonance begins to detract from the singular power these stories, essays, and poems genuinely do hold. This year's volume opens with "The River Nemunas" by Anthony Doerr, originally published in Tin House and, in keeping with the competitive theme, this story clearly wins the cart. Other notables include Tony Hoagland's poem "Victory," Bob Hicok's "Watchful," Ravi Shankar's "Barter," the story "Shelter" by Susan Perabo, and the essay "Mot" by Sarah Einstein. In an age of the daily death knell-a "gleeful slaughter" as Henderson calls the domino demise of small and literary presses and publications-the Pushcart, at 35, continues to age with defiance and grace.
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In its thirty-fifth year, in a time of skittery fulmination about the future of that perfect unplugged vessel, the paper-and-ink book, the Pushcart Prize anthology weighs in at 608 pages etched with 69 poems, stories, memoirs, and essays from 52 out of the 652 small presses (an astonishing number) from which nominations were drawn. In his introduction, Henderson, the Pushcart king, recalls his cubicle days at Doubleday, when corporate publishers were already anxious to brand themselves as multimedia entities. He also remembers some of the writers who helped create the first Pushcart collection—Paul Bowles, Ralph Ellison, Anaïs Nin, Joyce Carol Oates, and Reynolds Price. Print or pixels, it matters not. Writers write; readers read. So add this exciting overview of American literature, proof positive that creative writing thrives, to the Pushcart shelf, or start a Pushcart collection for the sake of outstanding poems by Nancy Eimers, Bob Hicok, Rodney Jones, and Alan Shapiro; fiction by Joe Meno, Deb Olin Unferth, and Jess Row; and essays by Sarah Einstein, William Giraldi, and legendary publisher Barney Rosset, paying homage to Samuel Beckett. --Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Pushcart Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1888889594
• ISBN 13: 9781888889598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 580
• Editor: Henderson Bill, The Pushcart Prize Editors