The 2020 International Beverly Prize For Literature

SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMENT

The International Beverly Prize For Literature is one of our most cherished prizes, it began with the hope of providing a space for writers of literature to share their creative worlds and it has lived up to more than we could have imagined. We have stumbled upon some of our most loved authors here and every year, we remain eager to discover new talent through this wonderful prize. Thank you to all entries.

Our exceptionally qualified judge for the prize, Lisa Pasold, had the following to say

"The entries have offered a great diversity in style and ideas, with intriguing approaches to both new and age-old themes. It has been difficult to winnow down a shortlist, and I'll be wrestling with a final prize over the next few weeks. Every one of these manuscripts makes for fantastic reading, and during these difficult times, it has been especially encouraging to find so much good work. I'm excited to present the shortlist of 10 extraordinary entries for the 2020 International Beverly Prize for Literature."

The 2020 International Beverly Prize for Literature SHORTLIST:    

Ea Anderson, I Want to be This Girl (short fiction collection)

Ea Anderson, originally from Denmark, is a graduate of The Danish Academy of Creative Writing (forfatterskolen). She moved to Scotland in 2011 and completed an MSc in Creative Writing at The University of Edinburgh. She now writes primarily in English and divides her time between Scotland and the south of France. Ea is the author of Hun Bryder sig Langsomt om Hunde (She Slowly Cares for Dogs, 2009), published by the Danish publishing house Lindhardt & Ringhof (Athene).

Ana Maria Caballero, A Petit Mal (creative non-fiction)

Ana Maria Caballero was born in Miami in 1981 but spent most of her childhood in Bogotá, Colombia. She is currently seeking an MFA in Poetry at Florida International University, where she was runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Prize. A Petit Mal, her first nonfiction manuscript, was shortlisted for the 2020 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards. Her collection Entre domingo y domingo (From Sunday to Sunday) won Colombia's 2014 José Manuel Arango National Poetry Prize. Finishing Line Press published Mid-life, her first chapbook, in 2016. Her writing has appeared in journals such as Sundog Lit, Tupelo Quarterly, and CutBank and reached the final round of consideration in Ploughshares' 2019 Emerging Writers Contest, judged by Leslie Jamison. More online at anamariacaballero.com.

Gail DiMaggio, Ironwork (poetry)

Ben Egerton, The Seed Drill (poetry)

Kristen Forbes, Let Me Know if You Need Anything (essays)

Kristen Forbes is a freelance writer whose work has been published in Modern Loss, Mutha Magazine, The Rumpus, Role Reboot, Bartleby Snopes and other publications. She holds a BFA in writing, literature and publishing from Emerson College and an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University. She likes to run and bake vegan cupcakes. She lives in the United States in Portland, Oregon with her husband Mike and daughter Greta.

Sativa January, TRUE (fiction)

Sativa January is a DuPont-Columbia award winner and a John Steinbeck fiction award finalist with an MFA in fiction from New York University. As an NYU Veterans Writing Workshop fellow, Sativa taught undergraduate creative writing and led writing workshops for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. She has served as a fiction editor for Washington Square Review, and her work is featured in The Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, Rattle magazine,Joyland, The International Journal of Transitional Justice, and elsewhere. Previously, Sativa worked as a video producer for PBS, and for war crimes courts in Sierra Leone and Cambodia. She now lives and teaches writing in California's Napa Valley. 

Carol Major, The Asparagus Wars (memoir)     

Carol was born in Scotland, and moved to Canada as a schoolgirl. She now lives in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales  Australia where she works as a freelance writer and mentors at Varuna Australia's National Writers House. Carol's short storiesand essays have been published in Canadian and Australian   literary magazines and anthologies. She has also written extensively in the health and social policy field.

Emilie Murphy, Toasted Ice (fiction)

Emilie Murphy is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, NY. She has published work in a variety of online and print publications including HERE Magazine, Suitcase Magazine, Dance Magazine, Entropy and Lonely Planet, among others. Ms. Murphy is a graduate of The College of William & Mary and The University of Kent, Paris School of Arts and Culture. 

Hoangmai Pham, Keeper of Stories: Finding the Buddhist Communist's Jewish Granddaughter (memoir)       

Hoangmai is a physician with experience caring for under-served communities, and nationally recognized in the health policy community, having held leadership positions in public and private sectors. She has served as Chief Innovation Officer at the federal agency responsible for Medicare and Medicaid where she was responsible for implementing parts of the Affordable Care Act, before becoming Vice President at Anthem, the country’s second largest health insurance company. Inspired by her autistic son, Alexander, Hoangmai's current passion is founding and leading a new nonprofit, Institute for Exceptional Care, to improve healthcare for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Samantha Schoech, A Reason for Everything (short fiction collection)   

Samantha Schoech’s writing has appeared in The Sun, Seventeen, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, Travel & Leisure, the New York Times, and many other publications. She’s the co-editor of two humor anthologies, including The Bigger the Better, The Tighter the Sweater, a bestseller. She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from UC Davis and she’s been awarded numerous residencies, a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant, and the Erma Bombeck & Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Award. She’s the founding director of Independent Bookstore Day, and the books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives with her bookseller husband and their twins in San Francisco.