Bob Shacochis wins Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction

2014 Taos Summer Writers' Conference keynote speaker, Bob Shacochis, has won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction. Many of you may remember Bob's fantastic keynote reading this summer in which he read from and discussed the themes of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul. While Bob's reading and subsequent roundtable focused on the craft of writing--specifically the way time functions in the novel--it is clear that this behemoth of a novel tackles many pressing political and cultural issues of our time.

In their announcement of the $10,000 award this morning, the judges said that novelist Bob Shacochis “creates an intricate portrait of the catastrophic events that have led to an endless cycle of vengeance and war between cultures.” Find out more here.

In an interesting twist, one of the two runners up for the award is a former TSWC participant, Margaret Wrinkle for her debut novel, Wash. 

Congratulations Bob! A much deserved award for a fantastic, epic novel. 

Nick DePascal's New Book

Former Taos Summer Writers' Conference graduate assistant, Nick DePascal is the winner of the first West End Press Poetry Prize. His book, Before You Become Improbable is just out from West End Press/University of New Mexico Press.
 
Of the book, Sasha Pimentel says, "Before You Become Improbable  is rich with the artifacts we are left with just before, or in the wake of, absence. It is a book which opens its windows, the floral curtains bunched and billowing, and on the stained wood floors we find finger bones and tufts of hair, or a dead crow with 'feathers erect like goosebumps on the skin'--all invitation to intimacy and history. Equally love poem and elegy, equally an exploration of the artist's life and a frank reflection on marriage, each line falls delicately, though the words and things which make them are hard and sharp. I love the 'stiff fingers' which 'pull the tongue' of this book, each 'bit by bit.' Like Dickinson, Nick DePascal is a poet's poet, a lover's poet."

Nick will be reading at Bookworks in Albuquerque on Friday, September 19th at 7PM. Congratulations Nick! We can't wait to get a copy.

Nick DePascal lives in Albuquerque, NM, with his wife and son. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in RHINO, Sugar House Review, The Emerson Review, The Los Angeles Review, The Laurel Review, Aesthetix, ditch, and more. His essays and criticism have appeared in BoldType, The Rumpus, Pleiades, Rain Taxi, and Tucson Weekly, among others.

WASH by Margaret Wrinkle

Margaret Wrinkle attended the Taos Summer Writers' Conference ten years ago. Of the Conference she says, "My time in Taos was so pivotal. I found my best reader there and the novel I was working on when I came in 2004 was recently published by Grove Atlantic. In a great coincidence, my book deal came through the same week as that of another student in my Taos workshop named Kristen Kittscher, so the Taos connection brought us back together after many years."

Margaret's book, Wash, released in 2013 was deemed "A masterly literary work" by the New York Times Book Review and Wrinkle was named One of Time Magazine’s "21 Female Authors You Should Be Reading." We agree! Congratulations, Margaret, on your great success and thank you for your kind words about the Conference. After all, our goal is to create a nourishing literary community for writers, in which everyone can form lasting relationships and most of all create great work.