WILLOW BOOKS LITERATURE AWARDS
Prose Grand Prize: $2,000 and book contract
Poetry Grand Prize: $1,000 and book contract
The Willow Books Literature Awards recognize literary excellence in prose and poetry by writers from culturally diverse backgrounds. A Finalists’ Reading & Awards Ceremony will be held April 6, 2013 in Chicago at Chicago State University during the 2nd Annual Willow Books LifFest. The Grand Prize winners’ books will be published by Willow Book, along with an ebook anthology of selections by Finalists.
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PROSE
PAULINE KALDAS is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She is the author of The Time Between Places (a short story collection), Letters from Cairo (a travel memoir) and Egyptian Compass, a collection of poetry. She is the co-editor of Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction. Her work navigates the geography of immigration, exploring issues of culture, identity, language and home.
LATHA VISWANATHAN has worked as a journalist, copywriter, editor and teacher in India, London, Manila, Montreal, Toronto and the United States. Her award-winning stories have appeared in major American literary magazines. A grant recipient from the Texas Commission of the Arts in Fiction, she has been published in Best New Stories from the South and broadcast on National Public Radio. Latha currently lives and writes in Houston.
ANA-MAURINE LARA is an award-winning novelist, playwright and poet. Ana-Maurine is a Cave Canem Fellow and is currently pursuing a PhD in African American Studies/Anthropology at Yale University. Her work has been featured in Callaloo, Sable LitMag, The Encyclopedia Project, Torch and elsewhere.
POETRY
JOHN MURILLO's first poetry collection, Up Jump the Boogie (Cypher, 2010), was a finalist for both the 2011 Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the PEN Open Book Award and was named by The Huffington Post as one of "Ten Recent Books of Poetry You Should Read Right Now." A graduate of New York University's MFA program in creative writing, his other honors include a Pushcart Prize, two Larry Neal Writers Awards and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Cave Canem Foundation, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, The New York Times and the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. His work has appeared in such publications as Callaloo, Court Green, Ninth Letter and Ploughshares and is forthcoming in Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of African-American Poetry. His choreo-play, Trigger, was commissioned by Edgeworks Dance Theater and premiered in spring 2011. A founding member of the poetry collective The Symphony, he has taught at Cornell University, New York University, Columbia College Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently, John is Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Miami.
CHING-IN CHEN is the author of The Heart's Traffic and co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. A Kundiman and Lambda Fellow, she is part of the Macondo, Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation and Theatrical Jazz writing communities. She has worked in the Asian American communities of San Francisco, Oakland, Riverside and Boston. Currently, Ching-In plays flute with the Milwaukee Molotov Marchers as part of union organizing and direct action efforts.
NAOMI AYALA is the author of two books of poetry, Wild Animals on the Moon and This Side of Early. Her third book of poems, Calling Home: Praise Songs and Incantations, is forthcoming from Bilingual Review Press. Her translation of Argentinean poet Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s most recent book of poetry, The Wind’s Archeology/La arqueología del viento, was published by Vaso Roto Ediciones in Mexico in 2011. Naomi lives in Washington, DC and teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. She serves on the Board of Directors of DC Advocates for the Arts. Her most recent work in Spanish appears in Al pie de la Casa Blanca: Poetas hispanos de Washington, DC (North American Academy of the Spanish Language, 2010).
The Judges
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED to the grand event on April 6, where we will award the winners live right after the reading. The awards ceremony will also stream live online. You don't want to miss it!
In addition, you can join us for an entire day of writing workshops, networking, manuscript sessions and a book fair, nearly all of which will be free and open to the public. Visit our our Events Page in the coming weeks for details on all of the LitFest activities we have in store for you.
*CONGRATS TO OUR FINALISTS!*
PROSE
1.
Annie Chuang, Washington, D.C., “The Four Words for Home”
Annie Chuang, Washington, D.C., “The Four Words for Home”2.LaTanya McQueen, Columbia, MO, “The Burning City: Stories”
LaTanya McQueen, Columbia, MO, “The Burning City: Stories”3.Sui Li, Boston, MA, “Transoceanic Nights”
Sui Li, Boston, MA, “Transoceanic Nights”4.Brian Gilmore, Okemos, MI, “Money Jungle”
Brian Gilmore, Okemos, MI, “Money Jungle”5.Naqueyalti Warren, Lithonia, GA, “Wade in the Water”
Naqueyalti Warren, Lithonia, GA, “Wade in the Water”POETRY
1.Angela Narciso Torres, Glenview, IL, “Night Jasmine”
Angela Narciso Torres, Glenview, IL, “Night Jasmine”2.Rich Villar, Pearl River, NY, “Comprehending Forever”
Rich Villar, Pearl River, NY, “Comprehending Forever”3.E.A. Moore, Garner, NC, “Body/Politics”
E.A. Moore, Garner, NC, “Body/Politics”4.Joseph Rios, Clovis, CA, “Shadowboxing”
Joseph Rios, Clovis, CA, “Shadowboxing”5.Jacqueline Johnson, Brooklyn, NY, “A Woman’s Season”
Jacqueline Johnson, Brooklyn, NY, “A Woman’s Season” 
FOR MORE ABOUT THE FINALISTS & THE LIT AWARDS CEREMONY, VISIT www.WillowLit.net
