FC2 is delighted to announce that The Chimeras, by Joe Fletcher, has been selected by contest judge Alvin Lu as winner of the 2026 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize! FC2 will publish The Chimeras in the Fall of 2027.
Joe Fletcher is the author of the poetry collections Already It Is Dusk and The Hatch (Brooklyn Arts Press); a collaborative prose and art book, Sleigh Ride (Bored Wolves, featuring collages by Mikołaj Moskal); five chapbooks, including Kola Superdeep Borehole (Bateau) and The Parachutist (Ethel); and the scholarly monograph William Blake as Natural Philosopher (Anthem). He teaches writing and literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is Assistant Editor of The William Blake Archive.
Joe, welcome to the collective! We also want to recognize the other manuscripts that, although they did not win, were shortlisted as finalists:
- In Sanguine Blue Rooms, by Chekwube Danladi
- Hive: Stories, by Mary Kuryla
- Passerskey, by Mar Ovsheid
- Kayla and Her Martyr, by Xavier Prince
- The Vanishing String, by Ali Raz
- Novel Written On My Phone, by D Frederick Thomas
- bootleg self-help mixtape, by marcus williams
Sincere thanks to all the writers who entered, and to contest judge Alvin Lu.
The reading period for the 2027 FC2 Innovative Fiction Prizes will open on August 15, 2026. Winners receive cash awards and publication. Judges will be announced in May.
