FC2 is thrilled to announce the winners of our 2023 Innovative Fiction Prizes! Immense thanks to this year’s judges, Matt Bell and Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi.
Kirstin Allio. Photo by Stephanie Alvarez Ewens.
For the
2023 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize, Matt Bell has selected
Double-Check for Sleeping Children, by Kirstin Allio. Kirstin Allio’s books are the novels
Buddhism for Western Children (University of Iowa, 2018) and
Garner (Coffee House Press, 2005), and the short story collection
Clothed, Female Figure (Dzanc, 2016). Stories, essays, and poems appear recently in
AGNI,
American Short Fiction,
Bennington Review,
Changes Review,
Conjunctions,
Fence,
Guesthouse,
The Hopkins Review,
New England Review,
The Paris Review Daily,
Poetry Northwest,
Prairie Schooner,
Subtropics, and elsewhere. She has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, a PEN / O. Henry Prize, the American Short(er) Fiction Prize from
American Short Fiction, and fellowships from Brown University’s Howard Foundation and MacDowell. She lives in Providence, RI.
Vanessa Saunders
For the
2023 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest, Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi has selected
The Flat Woman, by Vanessa Saunders. Vanessa Saunders is an author who writes about feminism, climate change, and their intersection. She works as a Professor of Practice at Loyola University New Orleans. She writes fiction and cross-genre work, and her writing has appeared in magazines such as
Seneca Review,
[PANK],
Passages North,
Sycamore Review, and
Los Angeles Review. Originally from the SF Bay Area, she lives in New Orleans.
Congratulations to Vanessa Saunders and Kirstin Allio! We are excited to get to work on both manuscripts in the coming months, and to welcome the authors into the FC2 community.
The reading period for the 2024 FC2 Innovative Fiction Prizes will open on August 15, 2023. Winners receive cash awards and publication.
The FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize is funded through the Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation. Additional program support for the Sukenick Contest and the Doctorow Prize is granted by the Richard L and Mary-Ann B Simon Foundation.
