2017 Gatewood Prize Announcement

Switchback Books is thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of two books of poetry.

Principles of Economics by Kristen Case is the winner of the 2017 Gatewood Prize, selected by judge Heather Christle. The contest runner-up, Grand Marronage by Irène Mathieu, will be published as an Editor’s Choice selection.

Thank you to everyone who submitted manuscripts to this year’s contest. We are honored to read your work. Congratulations also to our finalists and semi-finalists, selected by the editors:

Finalists
Nikia Chaney, akhi
Ines Pujos, Lilly of the Valley
Gale Thompson, Expeditions to the Polar Seas
Laura Wetherington, Parallel Resting Places

Semi-Finalists
Isabel Sobral Campos, Surrogate Language
Liz Chereskin, weather/report
Stella Corso, TEDIUM
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, The Many Names for Mother
Caridad Moro, Tortillera
Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad, So I Waited
Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Sticks



Judge Heather Christle’s remarks on Principles of Economics:

Principles of Economics marks the movement of a body in consciousness, in love, in illness, and in grief. It explores how, in measured language, one might attempt to measure time and all its strange work. Arranged in glinting layers of associative and disjunctive lines, these poems are a quiet thrill. Reading them, I feel a simultaneous calmness and excitement. I trust that this poet's bright mind knows just where to lead me, am happily surprised at each new place it goes.


Judge Heather Christle’s remarks on Grand Marronage:

Grand Marronage is a remarkable book, resolved to regard the difficulties and beauties of the past and present, to acknowledge the forces that would seek to control how both are seen, and to find the strength of its own steady gaze. These poems have a wild and courageous openness, full of intelligence and heart. The poet records "the dual wishes for her children to / write their own and to remember / the names of every ancestor before.” Grand Marronage makes a space where those wishes can breathe and grow.

Kristen Case's chapbook, Temple, was published by MIEL in 2014, and her full-length collection, Little Arias (New Issues, 2015) won the Maine Literary Award for Poetry. She is co-editor of the essay collection 21 | 19: Contemporary Poets and the North American Nineteenth Century, forthcoming from Milkweed Editions. She teaches English at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Dr. Irène P. Mathieu is a pediatrician, writer, and public health researcher. She is the author of orogeny (Trembling Pillow Press, 2017), which won the Bob Kaufman Book Prize, and the galaxy of origins (dancing girl press, 2014). Her honors include Yemassee Journal’s Poetry Prize, Honorable Mention and Editor’s Choice awards in the Sandy Crimmins National Poetry contest, and runner-up for the Northwestern/Cave Canem book prize. Her poems have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Boston Review, Southern Humanities Review, Los Angeles Review, Callaloo, New Delta Review, Foundry, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. Irène serves as a poetry book reviewer for Muzzle Magazine and an editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine’s humanities section. She holds a BA in International Relations from the College of William & Mary and a MD from Vanderbilt University, and has received fellowships from the Fulbright Program and Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. She is represented by Jack Jones Literary Arts.

Switchback Books announces publication of Marisa Crawford's REVERSIBLE!

*We couldn't be more excited to make this announcement!* Switchback Books will be publishing Marisa Crawford's second collection of poems, REVERSIBLE in early 2017.

The dream of the '90s is alive in REVERSIBLE, where the coping mechanisms for surviving the complexities of teenage girl existence are bound up in episodes of My So-Called Life, Cranberries lyrics, and the intimacy of friendship. REVERSIBLE is also a temporal study--saturated in the past and confronting anxiety about future and its possibilities. Relics from adolescence accumulate throughout the collection and transcend their original purposes, creating a narrative about life before the internet, feminist identity, and the persistent messiness of selfhood.

If you haven't yet read Crawford's first collection of poems, The Haunted House, well, we're jealous that you get to experience it for the first time. Pick it up here or add it to your SPD order!

Marisa Crawford is the author of the poetry collection The Haunted House 

(Switchback, 2010), and the chapbooks

8th Grade Hippie Chic (Immaculate

Disciples, 2013), and Big Brown Bag 

(Gazing Grain, 2015). Her writing has 

appeared in Hyperallergic, Bitch, The

Hairpin, and elsewhere, and is forthcoming

in Electric Gurlesque (Saturnalia, 2016). 

She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of 

the feminist literary/pop culture website 

WEIRD SISTER. She lives in Brooklyn.

                                                                                

Congrats to our 2014 Gatewood Prize Winner!

Switchback Books is thrilled to announce our 2014 Gatewood Prize winner, chosen by judge Dorothea Lasky:

But I Have Realized It by Crystal Curry

Crystal Curry is the author of But I Have Realized It: A Motivational Poem in Little Arcs, winner of the 2014 Gatewood Prize, selected by Dorothea Lasky (Switchback Books, forthcoming 2016), Our Chrome Arms of Gymnasium, winner of the Slope Editions Book Prize, selected by Dara Wier (Slope Editions, 2010) and the chapbook Logotherapy Pant (Cosa Nostra Editions, 2008). Her poems, reviews and poetry articles have appeared widely in publications including The Volta, Coldfront, Octopus, Denver Quarterly, Action Yes and others. Curry holds an MFA from the University of Iowa, an Ed.M from the University of Illinois and is a contract instructional designer, as well as a contributing editor at Coldfront Magazine. She lives in Van Cortlandt Village, BX, NYC with her husband, poet/artist Nico Vassilakis, their children and a little Boston terrier named Timaxzienie. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted manuscripts to our contest. We are continuously thrilled by the high-quality material we get year after year. 

Congratulations also to our finalists and semifinalists, chosen by our editors:

FINALISTS

Phrasebook for the Unrequited Country by R.S. Armstrong

The Riots by Leora Fridman

The Jennifer Disease by Maia Elgin

The Ideal World by Elsbeth Pancrazi

Orbit Engine by Kit Frick

Tickets on Sale Now for Taste of Switchback 2014

Purchase tickets here.
RSVP on Facebook here. 

Your General Admission ticket includes:

• Unlimited craft beer tastings
• One complimentary raffle ticket (additional raffle tickets available for purchase)
• A program book, including tasting notes and poems from Switchback authors
• Light appetizers
• Live and virtual readings by Switchback authors 

Live readings by Switchback authors Kathleen Rooney (Oneiromance) and Stefania Heim (A Table That Goes on For Miles)!

Interactive virtual readings and performances by Marisa Crawford, Alyse Knorr, Jenn Marie Nunes, Morgan Parker, Jennifer Tamayo, Monica de la Torre and Caroline Noble Whitbeck!

Stay tuned for an exciting list of award-winning brews and seasonals from Michigan's Saugatuck Brewing Company!

OH, AND THIS TOO:

Attend The Swell's event the same night, featuring Switchback author Stefania Heim, and receive discounted admission at the door with proof of attendance. Wow, what a deal!



 

Save the Date: Taste of Switchback 2014 is just around the corner!

SAVE THE DATE!

This year's Taste of Switchback event is Saturday, October 4, 2014.

Join Switchback Books for an evening of unlimited craft beer tastings, expertly paired and presented alongside poems from Switchback Books' authors.

We had a blast with everyone who supported our event last year, and we look forward to seeing all of you again. Mark your calendars for a night of delicious beer and palate-quenching poetry from the Switchback catalog.

Information about ticket purchases, raffle prizes and beer selection coming soon!

Where: The Test Kitchen, 1511 West Cortez Street, Chicago, IL
When: Saturday, October 4, 2014 (Time TBD)

RSVP Here

Exciting News (!): Forthcoming Switchback Title

Switchback Books is excited to announce that we will be publishing Alyse Knorr's Copper Mother!

Copper Mother was submitted to the 2014 Queer Voices Contest, and we loved it so much that we decided it must have a home in our catalog! Congratulations, Alyse, and welcome to the Switchback family!

 Alyse Knorr is the author of Annotated Glass (Furniture Press Books, 2013) and the chapbook Alternates (dancing girl press, 2014). She received her MFA from George Mason University. Her work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, ZYZZYVA, Caketrain, Puerto Del Sol, Drunken Boat, and The Southern Poetry Anthology (Texas Review Press, 2012), among others. She is a co-founding editor of Gazing Grain

Good News! 2014 Gatewood Prize Deadline Extended

In case you missed it with all of our exciting news last week, the 2014 Gatewood Prize submission deadline has been extended! We are now accepting manuscripts until 11:59 PM on June 1st, 2014.

Contest judge: Dorothea Lasky

A refresher on contest details and submission guidelines

Switchback Books Catalog

AND, check out 2013 Gatewood Prize Winner, Morgan Parker's website, to see what she's been up to!

Congrats to the first-ever Queer Voices Winner!

Switchback Books is thrilled to announce the winner of our first-ever Queer Voices Contest, chosen by our judge, Dawn Lundy Martin:

AND/OR by Jenn Marie Nunes

 

Jenn Marie Nunes is the author of three chapbooks, including OPERA TRANS OPERA, w/ Mel Coyle, from alice blue books. She holds a BS from Cornell University and an MFA from LSU. Jenn Marie currently lives in New Orleans where she teaches creative writing at Southern University at New Orleans, co-edits TENDE RLOIN, on online gallery for poetry, and performs as [Bi]Nary with the New Orleans Poetry Brothel. You can find more of her work online at [PANK], Finery, Horse Less Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Fiction Southeast and Café Irreal. This is her first full-length poetry collection.

Congratulations, Jenn! Welcome to the Switchback family!

Thank you to everyone who submitted manuscripts to our first-ever Queer Voices Contest. We are impressed by the high-quality material we received. So many thanks!

Stefania Heim + A Public Space: May 16th in Brooklyn

Hey Brooklyn! Join A Public Space for a celebration of Stefania Heim's and Brett Fletcher's debut books, A Table That Goes On for Miles and A Hotel in Belguim.

Friday, May 16th, 2014
A Public Space
323 Dean Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11217

http://apublicspace.org/events/detail/brett_fletcher_lauer_and_stefania_heim

And, if you haven't already, get your very own copy of A Table That Goes On for Miles here.

Jennifer Tamayo Reads at the Ear Inn Series

Hey New York! Jennifer Tamayo (Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes, Switchback Books 2012) reads at the Ear Inn Series with Amy Lawless and John Casteen next Wednesday,  April 30th.

For Jennifer Tamayo's future readings, visit her website: http://www.jennifertamayo.com/events-performances/




Don't have a copy of Red Missed Aches? Want one? Shop the Switchback catalog, and pick up JT's book today!