Prairie Schooner and the University of Nebraska Press are pleased to announce the winners and runners-up of the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prizes. The winners will each receive a $3,000 prize and publication of their books through the University of Nebraska Press. The runners-up will each receive a $1,000 prize.

POETRY:

Winner:

Paul Guest's winning manuscript, Notes for My Body Double, will be published in 2007 by the University of Nebraska Press. His first collection, The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, won the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His poems appear in Poetry, The Southern Review, Slate, Crazyhorse, Verse and elsewhere. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Runner-up:

Stacey Waite for her manuscript Butch Geography.

Finalists:

Listed in alphabetical order: Lynn Chandhok, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Charles Jensen, Esther Lee, Lydia Melvin, Philip Metres, and Lesley Wheeler.

FICTION:

Winner:

Jesse Lee Kercheval’s winning manuscript will be published in the Fall of 2007 by the University of Nebraska Press. Kercheval is the Sally Mead Hands Bascom Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the director of the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. She is the author of six books and two chapbooks, including the story collection The Dogeater, the memoir Space, the novel The Museum of Happiness, and the poetry collections World as Dictionary and Dog Angel.

Runner-up:

Gina Apostol for her manuscript Cunanan’s Wake and Other Stories.

Finalists:

Listed in alphabetical order: Sheri Joseph, Margot Singer.

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.

Click here for information about the Prairie Schooner Book Prize selection process.

The 2007 Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series will award $3,000 and publication to one collection of poetry and one collection of fiction. One runner-up in each category will receive a $1,000 prize. Information for the 2007 competition will be posted in due course on this site. The submission period for the contest will be January 15th through March 15th, 2007.

The 2005 winning books, Famous by Kathleen Flenniken and Nocturnal America by John Keeble, will be available from the University of Nebraska Press this Fall and can be ordered from their website and most bookstores.