The editors of Moon City Press would like to congratulate the following 11 writers, whose manuscripts have been named finalists in the 2019 Moon City Poetry Award competition:

Emily August of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Paul Bone of Evansville, Indiana
C.w. Emerson of Palm Springs, California
Charlie Green of Cortland, New York
Karen Kovacik of Indianapolis, Indiana
Ann Lovett of Ashland, Oregon
Katharyn Machan of Ithaca, New York
Sandy Marchetti of Lisle, Illinois
Matt Morgan of Kalamazoo, Michigan
Phoebe Reeves of Cincinnati, Ohio
Bret Shepard of Tacoma, Washington

Series Editor Karen Craigo will select a winner from this group. That winner will have their book published on Moon City Press and receive the $1,000 top prize.

We congratulate these authors for making it to this stage, but also regard every writer who entered this contest, so many great manuscripts, making our decision extremely tough.

Time to pre-order your copy of Pablo Piñero Stillmann’s awesome debut collection of stories, Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks, winner of the 2019 Moon City Short Fiction Award! The book is set to release on April 1, but reserve your copy today!

“Pablo Piñero Stillmann’s astonishing stories stun with their punchy sharpness and style, with their deeply layered humor and humanity. Each piece is disarmingly matter-of-fact in its patient excavation of emotional density: mental anguish, generational grief, existential resignation. I burned through Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks in a day, and you will, too:a genuinely immersive collection from a dazzling writer.”—Joseph Scapellato, author of The Made-Up Man

https://www.uapress.com/product/our-brains-and-the-brains-of-miniature-sharks/?fbclid=IwAR3Iv06SvqpiERHU9mlh213Gde248jyWCqex0FppRinvKHDbMuI-0dynQIg

After much deliberation, we have made the very difficult decision to opt out of this year’s AWP Conference in San Antonio. Sadly, this means that Moon City Press and Moon City Review will not be at our booth at the book fair, nor will we be holding our offsite reading on Wednesday night—all of our authors have opted out of the conference as well.

We are especially sad for our authors whose books were supposed to have their first AWP this year: Phong Nguyen for Roundabout (Missouri Author Series), Kathy Goodkin for Crybaby Bridge (Moon City Poetry Award), and Pablo Piñero Stillmann for Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks (Moon City Short Fiction Award). All had scheduled signings at our booth, and all were looking forward to presenting their books to fifteen thousand writers this week, live and in person.

Though this won’t be happening, we ask that you please seek out these books and pick up a copy—and while we’re at it, we can all do our part to support the authors, journals, and presses who have to miss out on this year’s conference.

Thank you!

If you’re attending the AWP Conference in San Antonio this coming week, don’t miss the Moon City Press offsite reading on Wednesday, March 4, from 8 to 10 p.m. at Southtown 101. The reading will feature Kim Magowan, Amanda Marbais, Phong Nguyen, Michelle Ross, and Pablo Piñero Stillmann.

We hope to see you there!

We’re thrilled to announce that Sarah Layden’s “The Jumper,” which first appeared in Moon City Review 2019, has been selected by final judge Michael Martone to appear in Best Microfiction 2020. Congratulations, Sarah!

For the full list of selections:

http://www.bestmicrofiction.com/

The anthology will be available in April.

The editors of Moon City Press would like to congratulate Pablo Piñero Stillmann of Mexico City, Mexico, for being chosen as winner of the 2019 Moon City Short Fiction Award for his collection, Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks. The author holds an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University. He’s also been the recipient of Mexico’s two top grants for young writers: The Foundation for Mexican Literature (f,l,m) and The National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA). His fiction, nonfiction and poetry have appeared in, among other journals, Ninth Letter, Bennington Review, The Normal School, The Summerset Review, The Rumpus, and Moon City Review. His debut novel, Temblador, was published in 2014 by Conaculta.

The finalists and runners-up of the 2019 competition are as follows:

Andrew Bertaina
Angela Buck
Timothy DeLizza
Emily Doak
JoeAnn Hart
Bradford Kammin: RUNNER-UP
Nathan Oates: RUNNER-UP
Jenn Stroud Rossmann
Marvin Shackelford
Rob McClure Smith

Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks will be published in 2020 by MCP, and its author will receive the $1,000 prize upon publication.

Entries for the 2020 Moon City Short Fiction Award are still being accepted through December 15.

Moon City’s editors would like to thank everyone who entered this contest for helping to make it so competitive, so great. We received so many fantastic entries, we only wish we could publish more of them alongside this winning book.

We so love the cover of our next issue, Moon City Review 2020! The art is by Missouri State University’s own Jordan Seyer and is designed by the brilliant Charli Barnes. This issue (so far) features work by writers such as Sarah Browning, John Gallaher, Jennifer Howard, Gary Leising, Kim Magowan, John McNally, Jessica Mehta, Michelle Ross, Rebecca Schumejda, Jennifer Wortman, and lots of other talented folks. Debuting at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference in San Antonio, then everywhere else right after!

Reminder: The release party for Amanda Marbais’ debut collection, Claiming a Body, will be tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Read/Write Library Chicago. Amanda will be reading her work alongside Jac Jemc, Sara Wainscott, and Michael Czyzniejewski.

If you’re in the area, please attend this wonderful event!

https://www.facebook.com/events/2154849941471993/

We would like to enthusiastically thank Jason Teal, Nathan Floom, and especially Casey Smith for Heavy Feather Review‘s wonderful new review of Amanda Marbais’ debut collection, Claiming A Body, winner of the 2018 Moon City Short Fiction Award.