KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Pushcart Prize XXXVI: Best of the Small Presses 2012 has reprinted two works from New Letters — the University of Missouri-Kansas City‘s (UMKC) international magazine of writing and art. The national prize anthology features an essay, “Logophilia,” by B. H. Fairchild, and a short story, “Rockaway,” by Lydia Conklin, both from New Letters vol. 76, no. 4 (summer 2010).
“It is rare that a magazine or press receives multiple Pushcart Prizes in a single year,” said New Letters editor Robert Stewart. “Even one is an honor.”
The two new awards combine with a Pushcart Prize “triple crown” in 2010 to place New Letters among the country’s top 10 Pushcart Prize-winning magazines from 2010 to 2012. Other magazines that yielded five or more awards include Ploughshares, Tin House, Threepenny Review and The Kenyon Review.
Each year, Pushcart Press editors receive thousands of nominations, representing more than 600 small presses and literary journals. Winning pieces are narrowed down to a single volume – what The Chicago Tribune has called, “The ex-officio house organ for the American literary cosmos.”
“We are lucky,” said Stewart. “By that, I mean New Letters seems to get serious attention from editors and writers around the country. I believe people expect the magazine to have the best work; and our ongoing challenge is to keep delivering.”
A 2012 Pushcart Special Mention also went to Gary Gildner for his New Letters essay, “Juventutem Meam”.
New Letters is published by the University of Missouri-Kansas City and distributed worldwide. Subscriptions to New Letters quarterly can be ordered online at www.newletters.org for $22 per year (four issues) or for multiple years at discounted rates. For more information, call (816) 235-1168 or email newletters@umkc.edu. New Letters is in its 78th year of continuous, quarterly publication at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Its radio affiliate, “New Letters on the Air,” can be heard weekly on public radio stations nationwide, on podcasts, or at www.newletters.org.
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