Prairie Schooner and the University of Nebraska Press announce the winners of the 2003 Prairie Schooner Prize Book Series.

Prairie Schooner and the University of Nebraska Press are pleased to announce the winners of the 2003 Prairie Schooner Prize Book Series.

POETRY: Cortney Davis wins for her collection, Leopold's Maneuvers. Ms. Davis is a nurse-practitioner in Danbury, Connecticut. She is the author of I Knew a Woman: The Experience of the Female Body, published by Random House in 2001 and in paper by Ballantine Books in 2002. Her collection of poetry, Details of the Flesh, was published by Calyx in 1997. Her poetry has appeared in the journals Crazyhorse, Poetry, Witness, and others. Leopold's Maneuvers takes the body—gorgeous, suffering, medicalized, mythologized, abused, and loved—as its central topic. Both harsh and beautiful, these poems are acts of spiritual survival, one woman's necessary testimony and confession.

FICTION: K. L. Cook wins for his collection, Last Call. Mr. Cook teaches creative writing and literature at Prescott College in Arizona, where he also serves as the associate dean. His fiction, poetry, and essays have been published in journals including the Threepenny Review, American Short Fiction, Witness, and Shenandoah. Last Call is a collection of connected stories focusing on one Texas family--unlucky men and women who drink, fight, and love their way through disaster. While these stories deal with broken relationships and pain, they speak of our capacity to move forward through life's hardships. Narrated by different characters and set in Texas, Las Vegas, and Costa Rica, these moving stories promise a gritty, hard hope.

K. L. Cook and Cortney Davis will each receive a $3,000 prize and publication of their books through the University of Nebraska Press. Last Call and Leopold's Maneuvers will be published in 2004.

We thank all those who submitted manuscripts to this year's competition! We were delighted by both the high number and the high quality of the submissions received. There were many wonderful manuscripts, and our decision was a difficult one. We hope to see more of your work in next year's contest.

The 2004 Prairie Schooner Prize Series will award $3,000 and publication to one collection of poetry and one collection of fiction. Information for the 2004 competition will be posted in due course on this site.