great weather for MEDIA is delighted to announce our nominations for the next Pushcart Prize – Best of the Small Presses Series.
These nominations are for work published in 2016 and were chosen from our anthology The Careless Embrace of the Boneshaker, and the collections Exercises in High Treasonby John J. Trause and Crown Prince of Rabbits by John Paul Davis (forthcoming, December 2016.)
*
John Paul Davis - Self-Portrait in Three Colors
Janet Hamill - Birth Certificate
Craig Kite - Bending Spoons with Prayer Waves
Puma Perl - Rock 'n' Roll Heart Attack
Taylor Steele - All These Bodies
John J. Trause - Unnatural Reflections on a Green Pepper
*
Want a taster? Here are the first few lines…
I have already lied to you. I was born with ink on my tongue. The room where I was born
has since been destroyed. If you kiss me, you’ll taste the cinderblock dust, my tongue knocking
against yours like a wrecking ball. I was born a liar & learned to tell the truth by plagiarizing
- John Paul Davis
*
My birth certificate reads substitution bird destined to walk upright
against her will against prohibitive tickets to flying feats of black doves
similarly immobilized with six-foot wing spans spanning continents
- Janet Hamill
*
Warm fountain,
Faith sculpted you from an ambulatory mountain.
And even your dog is a tributary
Gathered from the snow of angels combusting
On anxiety-ridden bedspreads,
That happy beast
That peed
On your carpet.
- Craig Kite
*
I was having a bad day. There'd been no heat or hot water for two weeks, a cold snap had hit the city, and I'd grown weary of dragging my towels and clean clothes from one friend's house to another. Feeling like I had not one social bone left in my body, I'd heated four pots of water and taken a lukewarm bath in a tub barely one quarter full. At least I didn't have to talk to anyone. Or so I thought.
- Puma Perl
*
Another black boy got killed today And he was my brother but not And he was my son if there is a word for being rebirthed unborn If he can have not been yet and just have been at the same
- Taylor Steele
*
In humid jungles south of here, By native birth you did appear And first were plucked by Aztec hand, Ancient race.
My gem! My crispy capsule green! My passion for you—too obscene To ever verbalize this way. Ripe. Pick. Crunch.
- John J. Trause
*
Congratulations to all our nominees and good luck!
Remember we are currently accepting submissions for our next collection, so send us your fearless best. Deadline January 15 2017. Be sure to check out all our books. We look forward to reading your work.