Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize
Plonsker Prize News
- February 15
Canadian Poet Lisa Robertson will be the guest judge for the 2012-2013 Madeline P. Plonsker Emerging Writers Residency Prize. More » - August 8
Lake Forest College is pleased to recognize fiction writer Elizabeth Gentry as the fourth winner of the Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize, awarded annually. More »
Gretchen E. Henderson on Madeleine P. Plonsker:
“I must give my immeasurable thanks to the person who made this all possible: Madeleine Plonsker. I am at a loss for words that might adequately capture what your visionary gift to this College and to the larger literary community means, not only to me, but also to other emerging writers who might benefit from this fellowship in years to come. There is no other fellowship like this, emphasizing both process and product in such a tangible and thoughtful design: through the two-month residency, stipend, creative interactions at the College and through &NOW, culminating in book publication. To underwrite work that dares to look forward, to not fit inside a prepackaged box, takes a particularly generous spirit. So, again, thank you more than my words can express.”
Each spring, Lake Forest College, in conjunction with the &NOW Festival, sponsors emerging writers under forty years old—with no major book publication—to spend two months in residence at our campus in Chicago’s northern suburbs on the shore of Lake Michigan.
There are no formal teaching duties attached to the residency. Time is to be spent completing a manuscript, participating in the annual Lake Forest Literary Festival, and offering a series of public presentations.
The completed manuscript will be published (upon approval) by &NOW Books imprint, with distribution by Northwestern University Press.
The stipend is $10,000 with a housing suite and campus meals provided by the college.
The 2012 winners and finalists:
Winner: Elizabeth Leigh Gentry, Knoxville, TN: Housebound
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
La Revengista, Lena Bertone,
The Sorrow Paper, Lindsey Drager
The Worry of Our Dreams, Elise Pollard, Davis, CA:
Semifinalists (in alphabetical order):
Rat, July Cole
Fun Camp, Gabe Durham
Pink Eye, Jennifer Stockdale
Quarterfinalists (in alphabetical order):
Rockafeller’ Speaks, Sutherland Douglass
Quantum Manual of Style, Brian Mihok
Regarding the Death of One Barry Maguire, Son of Craig Maguire, Who Drowned in the Woods on July 23rd, 2008 (Wherefrom Joseph Beuys), Caroline Picard
Noreiga’s Daughter, Anndell Quintero
Invisible Escalators, Ryan Wirick
Winners
2011 Winner (Poetry):
José Perez Beduya, whose book, Throng, will be released in October 2012 pending completion during his residency. (Guest Judge: Jennifer Moxley.)
2010 Winner (Prose):
Gretchen Henderson, whose book Galerie de Difformité, will be released in October 2011.
2009 Winner (Poetry):
Jessica Savitz, whose book Hunting is Painting, was released in October 2010.
Apply for the Madeleine P. Plonsker Prize
Guidelines (Deadline March 1 (formerly April 1), every year):
We invite applications for a writer under forty years old, with no major book publication, to spend two months (February-March or March-April) in residence at Lake Forest College.
Cross-genre works are always welcome. Beyond this, even residency years (with odd year deadlines) look for prose writers. Odd residency years (with even years deadlines) look for poets.
- 2013 residency, deadline March 1, 2012: poetry
- 2014 residency, deadline March 1, 2013: prose
- 2015 residency, deadline March 1, 2014: poetry
- 2016 residency, deadline March 1, 2015: prose
We are now taking applications exclusively through Submishmash. We will only consider the first 200 submissions.
Send, in one file, WITHOUT your name, contact information, or other identifying marks:
A) A one-page statement of plans for completion
B) No more than 30 pages of manuscript in progress
Your cover letter, pasted into the text box, should include the basic details of your cv: education, employment, significant publications, etc. These may be in narrative form.
Submissions must be postmarked by March 1 (formerly April 1), each year for consideration by judges Robert Archambeau, Davis Schneiderman, and Joshua Corey and that year’s guest judge.
Direct inquiries to andnow@lakeforest.edu with the subject line: Plonsker Prize.
