Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize
Plonsker Prize News
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July 2
Lake Forest College is pleased to recognize poet Cecilia K. Corrigan as the fifth winner of the Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize, awarded annually. She will be in residence on the campus of Lake Forest College from February 1 to March 31, 2013, where she will work to complete her winning manuscript, Titanic. -
July 10
Anne-Laure Tissut, Professor of American Literature at Rouen University, France, will judge the 2013-2014 Madeline P. Plonsker Emerging Writers Residency Prize.
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.”
Submissions for the 2013 Plonsker Competition are now closed, as we have passed the 200-mansucript mark. Thanks to all who entered! Results will be announced in the spring.
Each spring, Lake Forest College, in conjunction with the &NOW Books, 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.
Photo Gallery
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Recipients of the Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer’s Residency Prize stay in a suite in Glen Rowan House. Lake Michigan is one mile away.
The 2013 winners and finalists:
Winner: Cecilia K. Corrigan, New York, NY: Titanic
Runner-up: Adam Peterson, Houston, TX: Sire Lines of America
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Geoffrey Babbitt, Findlay, OH: Appendices Pulled from a Study of Light
William Camponovo, Los Angeles, CA: Miami at Night as Seen from Buenos Aires
Michael Dauro, Bloomington, IN: The First Books of Amnezia
Adam Fagin, Oakland, CA: Thayer’s Law
Philip Matthews, St. Louis, MO: Always Happy on Television
Hong-Thao Nguyen, Pittsburgh, PA: The Wanderer
Russel Swensen, Houston, TX: Santa Ana
Sara Talpos, Ann Arbor, MI: Black Sea
Christina Vega-Westhoff, Tucson, AZ: Five Panels of Rolling Ocean
Elisabeth Whitehead, Afton, VA: In Apparition
Winners
2012 Winner (Prose):
Elizabeth Gentry, whose novel, Housebound, will be released in September 2013.
2011 Winner (Poetry):
José Perez Beduya, whose book, Throng, will be released in September 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
The 2013 application is now closed. We have reached our 200 application limit!
Guidelines / annual submission period: January 1-March 1:
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 year deadlines) look for poets.
- 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. The 2013 submissions period is now closed—we have reached 200 submissions!
Please note: The submission link will not accept submissions until January 1 of each new year.
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.
