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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 4d

Danielle Weeks' poem "These Are the Generations" appears in our latest issue, available now: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

"THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS"
BY DANIELLE WEEKS

The dead have been waiting to tell us
what we already know: evil does not exist. It is too easy
to blame the blood on a shadow
when everyone carries one at their feet.
I know darkness, how shadows come to life
in the mind. It is not a choice to suffer.
It is a choice to break another body.

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University of Nebraska Press @univnebpress.bsky.social · 5d

Excerpt: DEATH DOES NOT END AT THE SEA by Gbenga Adesina

DEATH DOES NOT END AT THE SEA (@prairie-schooner.bsky.social) explores the complexity of elusive citizenship.

Excerpt: Death Does Not End at the Sea

Gbenga Adesina, a Nigerian poet and essayist, is the inaugural Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Black and Diasporic Poetry at the Furious Flower Poetry Center, James Madison University. He received his Masters in Fine Arts from New York University, where he was mentored by Yusef Komunyakaa. He is the cofounder and editor of A Long House, a journal of diasporic art, thought, and literature.

unpblog.com

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 8d

Today we're admiring the cover of the Winter 2007 issue of the Schooner, which featured illustrations by cartoonist Chris Ware. Known for graphic novels like Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, Ware was born in Omaha, Nebraska.

Shop our back issues: prairieschooner.unl.edu/print-archiv...

Hand holding a copy of the Winter 2007 issue of Prairie Schooner, featuring illustrations of a horse and wagon next to a small shack, a nightstand with with gum, candy, and other items, and a city street with a large red sign reading "Nebraska," among others.

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emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 21d

hey, i’m in this.

it’s free to read in its entirety here:
prairieschooner.unl.edu/excerpt/boyi...

a very very high contrast black and white picture of a white woman gaping in awe at an issue of prairie schooner.

(tag: self-destruct)

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 21d

"Boyish" by Emily Black (@threnody.bsky.social) appears in our newest issue, which is available now.

Read the full story, which won the 2024 Lawrence Foundation Award, on our website: prairieschooner.unl.edu/excerpt/boyi...

Order the new issue here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

"BOYISH"
BY EMILY BLACK

You drag Maddox through road-shoulder snow like a broken soldier, arms around each other's necks. The weight of him is almost too much to move forward when you hear the siren peal. Standing frozen, your shadows are blent: a single distended beast dancing at the center of a strobing red glow like a scrambled channel.

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 22d

Nadeem Zaman's story "Special Registration" appears in our newest issue, available now.

Read the full story on our website: prairieschooner.unl.edu/excerpt/spec...

Order the issue here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

"SPECIAL REGISTRATION"
BY NADEEM ZAMAN

Pulling out of my parking spot, I saw the restaurant's name painted on its wall in large, colorful Urdu script. Less than twenty-four hours later, the writing would be gone, washed, scrubbed, erased, and that dinner would be a kind of marker, a line between a Before and an After.

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New Dominion Bookshop @ndbookshop.bsky.social · 23d

This Saturday night (9/20) at 7 PM in the shop, poet Gbenga Adesina will be reading from his debut poetry collection, Death Does Not End at the Sea, winner of the Raz/Shumaker @prairie-schooner.bsky.social Book Prize in Poetry. An audience Q&A and book signing will follow.

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Omar Sakr @omarsakr.bsky.social · 24d

The Nightmare Sequence is out now in the US through Nightboat Books. Here’s an excerpt of Safdar’s art - one of his sequences is called “genocide culture”. NB: All artist royalties will be donated to Palestinian aid nightboat.org/book/the-nig...

Yellow tile with the cover of The Nightmare Sequence by Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed, introduction by George Abraham

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 25d

Brittany Perham's essay "Lock & Key" appears in our latest issue, which is available now.

Read excerpts from the issue and order a copy here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

"LOCK & KEY"
BY BRITTANY PERHAM

I believe in the creak of the stairs leading to the back porch. The creak is an early warning system. I know the difference between a wheeze and a sneeze and a cough and a snore and phlegm in the back of the throat. I believe the breath will tell me everything I need to know. I will hear whatever it is on the back porch. I will hear it before it reaches the kitchen door.

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 25d

"Sonnet with Skateboards and Tide Pools" by Robert Thomas appears in our latest issue, which is available now.

Read more excerpts from the issue and order a copy here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

Robert Thomas
Sonnet with Skateboards and Tide Pools
I can hear my blood baying in my ears,
and to be alive is to be afraid,
to fear that I'm wrong about everything,
myself most of all. It's not that when we die
we become grass or gravel, but why
are we, yes, consoled by a cedar grove?
It's the conservation of energy—
when someone dies their love doesn't vanish.
You find it in the rocks and the Spanish
moss on the cypresses and the skateboards
on Goat Hill and the wrecked, abandoned cars.
You find it in the tide pools and the sea
anemones, and the beautiful words:
cowrie, limpet, whelk, algae coralline.

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 28d

Rachel Ephraim's short story "With Relative Ease" appears in our latest issue, which is available now.

Read excerpts from the issue and order a copy here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

"WITH RELATIVE EASE"
BY RACHEL EPHRAIM

"People love the only way they know how. Does that make the love wrong? The love is the untouchable part, the midnight zone of the spirit. Once we'd split, I'd be able to swap lenses on the story, but no matter how much time passes, the images all remain: swimming circles in the lake; running circles round that tree; tracing, with our looping fingers, the places we'd been broken."

prairieschooner.unl.edu

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emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 29d

they’re saying i did something good. all of my self worth is exogenous so i can’t outright agree, but it would surely be rude of me to argue.

so, i guess all i can do is give you the link. ⬇️

prairieschooner.unl.edu/excerpt/boyi...

a…nebulously accented car salesman in a blue suit with a semi-pompadour places a hand on the shoulder of homer simpson in full krusty the klownface. there is a heavily damaged car in front of them that has been very poorly covered by the relevant issue of prairie schooner.

the salesman says, “YOU WANT MY ADVICE? I THINK YOU SHOULD READ THIS STORY.”

i may have slightly altered the original quote.

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 29d

Our 2024 literary award winners list, continued: winners of Glenna Luschei Awards include @khilfish.bsky.social, @ninacpelaez.bsky.social, and @nadeemzaman.bsky.social.

Read more on our blog: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...

The Schooner Annual Award Winners

First Place Glenna Luschei
Prairie Schooner Award
$1500
iheoma uzomba, three poems, Fall 2024

Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Awards
$250
Gabriel Houck, "Signal/Noise," Fall 2024
Emily Khilfeh, "Poem with Genocide in the Title," Summer 2024
Divya Mehrish, "The Opposite of Tragedy," Fall 2024
Nina C. Peláez, "Still Life," Fall 2024
Nadeem Zaman, "Special Registration," Winter

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 29d

Our 2024 literary award winners list, continued: winners include @feliciazamorapoet.bsky.social for the Edward Stanley Award and @bcar.bsky.social for the Strousse Award.

Read more on our blog: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...

The Schooner Annual Award Winners

Edward Stanley Awards
$250
Marilyn Hacker and Deema K. Shehabi, "Water to Water: A Renga for Gaza," Winter 2024
&
Felicia Zamora, two poems, Winter 2024

Strousse Award
$500
Brenda Cárdenas, three poems, Fall 2024

Hugh J. Luke Award
$250
Matthew Daddona, "Me, You, the Young Man, the Dying Wife, and the Watch," Fall 2024

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · 29d

We're pleased to share the winners of our annual literary awards for work published in Prairie Schooner in 2024. Winners include @threnody.bsky.social for the Lawrence Award and @mlynxqualey.bsky.social for the Virginia Faulkner Award.

Read more on our blog: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...

The Schooner Annual Award Winners

Lawrence Foundation Award
$2000
Emily Black, "Boyish," Winter 2024

Virginia Faulkner Awards
$500
Sonja Livingston, "Joseph the Worker," Fall 2024
&
Marcia Lynx Qualey, "Echoes of a Dead Language," Winter 2024

Bernice Slote Award
$500
Dana Fang, "Outdoor Education," Fall 2024

Jane Geske Award
$250
Urvi Kumbhat, three poems, Fall 2024

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Sep 10

Congratulations to 2024 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize winner Gbenga Adesina on making the Longlist for the National Book Award in Poetry! His collection, Death Does Not End at the Sea, is now available from @univnebpress.bsky.social.

www.nationalbook.org/2025-nationa...

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emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · Sep 9

i’ve wanted to be in prairie schooner since i was killing time in undergrad and prowling the stacks in the library and here i am.

it’s the community holiday show meme in which dean pelton, in an ugly christmas sweater, sneers while holding a show program. he says, “oh, britta’s in this?” except britta has been crudely replaced by emily.

and emily is indeed in this.

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Sep 9

Our newest issue is now available for purchase! Featuring work by @feliciazamorapoet.bsky.social, @nadeemzaman.bsky.social, @mlynxqualey.bsky.social, @kgapoetwriter.bsky.social, @abbiekiefer.bsky.social, @riggstah.bsky.social, and more.

Order the issue here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...

Volume 98
Number 4
Contributors

Marilyn Hacker
Catherine DeNardo
Deema K. Shehabi
Emily Black
Chase Twichell
Danielle Weeks
Orlando Ricardo Menes
Tom Laichas
Felicia Zamora
Alonso Llerena
Cyril Dabydeen
Matthew Lippman
Nadeem Zaman
Christine Marshall
Mary Morris
Wes Matthews
Marcia Lynx Qualey
Genevieve Payne
Sabina Urraca
Rachel Ephraim
J.P. White
Esi W. Nkeyekyer
Matthew Gellman
Abbie Kiefer
Karan Kapoor
Joanne Clarkson
Keisha-Gaye Anderson
Avia Tadmor
Brian Francis
Chris Watkins
Andrea L. Hackbarth
Adam J. Gellings
Jay Kophy
Mariah Rigg
Nicholas Samaras
Brittany Perham
Enzo Silon Surin
Gracie Newman
Robert Thomas

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Jessica Nirvana Ram @jessnirvanapoet.bsky.social · Sep 6

Happy book birthday to my lil debut poetry collection, Earthly Gods ✨ Can’t quite believe it has been a year already since this entered the world, I can’t wait to witness the rest of this book’s little life @gameoverbooks.bsky.social

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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Sep 4

Now available: the 2024 winners of the Raz-Shumaker Book Prize in Fiction and Poetry, published by @univnebpress.bsky.social!

Invitation: Stories by Mi Jin Kim: prairieschooner.unl.edu/book-prize/i...

Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina: prairieschooner.unl.edu/book-prize/d...

cover of Invitation: Stories by Mi Jin Kim

cover of Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina

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Perugia Press @perugiapress.bsky.social · Sep 4

Tonight! A reading and conversation with Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Lynne Thompson at Chevalier’s Books!

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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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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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Prairie Schooner @prairie-schooner.bsky.social · Aug 29

To mark the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we're sharing @emtran.bsky.social's essay "Miss Saigon," originally published in our Spring 2017 issue.

Read the full essay along with E.M. Tran's reflection on our blog: prairieschooner.unl.edu/digital-scho...

"The further away I get from something as large as Hurricane Katrina, the more I understand that disasters such as these cannot be disentangled from human details. How important it is, more than ever, to resist flattening the storm (or the fires, or the earthquakes, or the floods) into something quick and forgettable, detached from individual experience."
-E.M. Tran reflecting on her essay "Miss Saigon," originally published in
Spring 2017

[Photo of the author]
[Image of the Spring 2017 cover]

Read the full essay on our blog
prairieschooner.unl.edu

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The Hudson Review @hudsonreview.bsky.social · Aug 28

Lorna Knowles Blake reviews Blood Wolf Moon by Elise Paschen @redhenpress.bsky.social:

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The desire for a name that connects to ancestry is a central preoccupation…[The final three] poems are written in a form of Paschen’s devising: three columns of Osage, phonetic translation and English.

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