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Adam O. Davis

@cubistoctopus.bsky.social

460 followers 490 following 9 posts

Purveyor of words & images / Author of PYRRHIC SYMPHONY (UNIV. OF NEBRASKA, 2026) & INDEX OF HAUNTED HOUSES (SARABANDE, 2020) & its hotline: 619-329-5757. www.adamodavis.com

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · Aug 13

Beyond delighted that my poetry collection, Pyrrhic Symphony, won the Raz/Shumaker prize from @prairie-schooner.bsky.social! Deepest, deepest thanks to the editors & readers!

Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Aug 12

We're excited to announce the winners of the 2025 Raz/Shumaker Book Prize! In poetry, Adam O. Davis (@cubistoctopus.bsky.social) is the winner for Pyrrhic Symphony. In fiction, Micah Dean Hicks (@micahdeanhicks.com) is the winner for Vulture Gold.

Read more: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...

The Schooner
2025 Raz/Shumaker Book Prize Winners

Poetry: Adam O. Davis for Pyrrhic Symphony
Fiction: Micah Dean Hicks for Vulture Gold

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · Sep 3

Still reeling from the news from @prairie-schooner.bsky.social & all the more delighted to announce that my second poetry collection, PYRRHIC SYMPHONY, will be published by @univnebpress.bsky.social almost exactly one year from today! Can't wait to share the book with you next September!

University of Nebraska Press @univnebpress.bsky.social · Sep 2

Congratulations to the winners of the Raz-Shumaker @prairie-schooner.bsky.social‬ Book Prizes: Adam O. Davis (@cubistoctopus.bsky.social‬) and @micahdeanhicks.com‬

Adam O. Davis and Micah Dean Hicks win 2025 Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prizes

The winner of the 2025 Raz-Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry is Adam O. Davis for “Pyrrhic Symphony,” chosen by guest judges Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Hilda Raz with Timothy Schaffert, Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner. Davis will receive a $3,000 award and publication by the University of Nebraska Press. Adam O. Davis, Micah Dean Hicks Rowan Ricardo Phillips praised Davis’s poetry, writing, “

unpblog.com

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Reposted by Adam O. Davis

Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Aug 15

Guest judges, Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Hilda Raz, praises @cubistoctopus.bsky.social's Pyrrhic Symphony, winner of the 2025 Raz/Shumaker Book Prize in poetry, which @univnebpress.bsky.social will publish.

Visit our blog to read more about the manuscript: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...

Excerpts of Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Hilda Raz’s praises for Adam O. Davis's Pyrrhic Symphony:

“Pyrrhic Symphony is wild, whip-smart, and irreverent—a maximalist elegy for late capitalism and ecological disaster, set to a beat both comic and catastrophic.” - Rowan Ricardo Phillips

“Pyrrhic Symphony is a wail of a book. We’re in some surreal hospital of a dying world attended by a nurse and the bird of the mystery at the heart of the speaker. The self is ever morphing, distorted by pollution and greed, consuming everything.” - Hilda Raz

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · Aug 13

Beyond delighted that my poetry collection, Pyrrhic Symphony, won the Raz/Shumaker prize from @prairie-schooner.bsky.social! Deepest, deepest thanks to the editors & readers!

Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Aug 12

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Reposted by Adam O. Davis

David DeGusta @davidwrites1.bsky.social · Jun 3

Excited to dive in! @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social going strong at 40. Kudos @ovillalon.bsky.social & contributors @arlozoroff.bsky.social
@cubistoctopus.bsky.social
@poetkellycm.bsky.social
@mpalaia.bsky.social
@fetaplace.bsky.social
@dapowell.bsky.social
@kimsamek.bsky.social
@gregoryspatz.bsky.social

The cover of issue 129 of the literary magazine Zyzzyva, founded in 1985.

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · May 22

Not to be confused with your favorite film/poetry podcast—Poetry Goes to the Movies—I’m very glad to have my poem about Charlton Heston’s many ends of the world as seen from what felt like the end of our world featured in this poetry/film anthology edited by Suzanne Lummis.

Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · May 1

If you know me, you know I was struck by lightning when I was a teenager. I’m delighted that the essay I finally wrote about it was a finalist for the @newlettersmagazine.bsky.social Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction. My thanks to Christie Hodges for publishing it.

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Reposted by Adam O. Davis

Dara Yen Elerath @daraelerath.bsky.social · Dec 15

Many, many thanks to Faith Hill and the poetry staff at @theatlantic.com for publishing my new poem “Fossil Record for my Grandmother” today: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

www.theatlantic.com

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · Oct 29

Delighted to have this poem from the new manuscript that invokes the mysteries of regeneration & poker & the forces that draw us together or pull us apart published in AGNI, a journal I’ve long admired & have just as long longed to be part of.

Reposted by Adam O. Davis

SarahJSloat @sjane.bsky.social · Oct 16

Lord
you
kept right on going downhill

badly slurred
The road you were on

(from Hotel Almighty)

Book page with most of the text x-acto knifed-out to create an erasure. Images are placed behind the cut-out areas, including an artist's drawing of power lines, a German bank ad from the 60s or so, and flowers from a perfume ad, I believe it was Gucci.

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · Oct 10

With Halloween nigh it’s high time to wish a happy belated third birthday to the INDEX. Thank you to everyone who’s read & supported it over the years, especially @sarabandebooks.bsky.social. Extra special thanks to my daughters’ art direction—“make it spookier,” they insisted; so we did.

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Adam O. Davis @cubistoctopus.bsky.social · Oct 6

An action shot of me dishing out a poem from the second manuscript (my printer’s busted & I refuse to read off a phone so I wrote it out) to celebrate PLNU’s 25th Annual Poetry Day. Thanks again to @katiemanningpoet.bsky.social for the invite & to the 24 other readers for their poems.