2008 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest Winner

We’re happy to announce that Alice Hoffman has chosen Cara Blue Adams’ “I Met Loss The Other Day” from nearly three hundred entries as the winner of the first Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest.  In her citation, Hoffman notes “many writers tackle loss, what it means and how it affects us: this writer has gotten to the heart of the matter with a unique twist, and in doing so has created a fictional world that is an original. In this world Loss has an entourage, bickers over what is truly lost and what is merely misplaced, is ready to make a deal, administers all forms of heartbreak. I can’t wait to read whatever stories this writer has yet to tell.”

Hoffman chose Megan Mayhew Bergman’s “Afterbirth” and Nick Ripatrazone’s “The Bearberry Elegies” as runners-up.  Each of the stories will appear in the Fall 2008 issue of KR.   

KR Writers Win Awards

We’re happy to announce that Brad Kessler, contributor and instructor in KR’s summer workshop, has been awarded the prestigious Rome prize from the American Academy in Rome for the 2008-2009 year.  The prize includes a stipend and year-long residency.  Kessler plans to work on his book The Goat Diaries, as well as begin work on a new novel.   

We are also happy to announce that KR’s editor at large, G.C. Waldrep, has won the 2007 Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press.  His manuscript Archicembalo was selected by C.D. Wright.  The award carries a $10,000 cash prize.   Archicembalo will be published and distributed internationally in 2009.  

This interview is part of a series of conversations with authors who have work in KR. It is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ted Kooser is the author of ten collections of poetry, two collections of essays, and a compilation of selected earlier works. His most recent book of new poems, Delights & Shadows, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.  He recently served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2004 to 2006, and makes his home in eastern Nebraska.  His poems have been praised for “reveal(ing) the remarkable within an otherwise ordinary world.”

Five new poems from Kooser appear in the Winter 2008 issue of The Kenyon Review.  KR single issues and subscriptions are available by choosing the “Order” button on the left. 

Tim Hofmeister: The laureateship gave you a unique opportunity to look at poetry across the country. I know we want to talk more about this in a minute. But first I want to ask a little more about your work as laureate. In fact, what is the nature of the laureateship? Are there official responsibilities and obligations?

TK: The actual obligations are few. The laureate is asked to give a public reading at the opening of each term, in October, and a lecture at the close of the season, in May. In between the laureate has the privilege of giving away two Witter Bynner Fellowships of ten thousand dollars to promising poets. It’s optional, but you can also bring poets to read at the Library of Congress, where they’re recorded for posterity. Again, I took on a whole lot in addition to these basics. One of the most pleasurable things I did was to invite the singer-songwriter John Prine to the Library talk about writing songs. I interviewed him on stage in the Coolidge Auditorium, and he was the first folksinger who had been there since Woody Guthrie in the 1930s. You can see that interview on the Library’s Web site.

By the way, the laureateship is in no way connected with the presidency, the executive branch, or even with Congress. Congress appropriates no money for it. It is a privately endowed program at the Library of Congress. I suppose that if the laureate were summoned to the White House and asked to write a poem for the President, somebody might want to do that. Not this guy. I did have one similar opportunity. I had an e-mail one day from a group of Cheney supporters asking if I would be willing to write a poem for Dick Cheney’s birthday. And I responded that I would not be available on that occasion. And then after I hit the SEND button, I realized that there was no date in the invitation at all.

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

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