The Best Writing in VQR in 2012

To honor the best writing to appear in our pages each year, VQR created The Emily Clark Balch Prize and the Staige D. Blackford Prize. The VQR Prize for Photography was created to recognize the best photo essay to appear in VQR. Each prize includes a monetary award of $1,000.

We congratulate the following 2012 prize winners.

Emily Clark Balch Prize for Fiction
Joyce Carol Oates, “A Book of Martyrs” (Fall 2012)

Emily Clark Balch Prize for Poetry
David Caplan, “Observances” (Spring 2012); read the introduction by Stephen Burt
Major Jackson, “The Dadaab Suite” (Winter 2012); read the introduction by Jackson

Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction
Delphine Schrank, “Dissident Thunder” (Summer 2012)
William Logan, “Elizabeth Bishop at Summer Camp” (Summer 2012)

VQR Prize for Photography
Jason Florio for three pieces:
• “Facing Mogadishu” (Winter 2012)
• “A Violent Prone, Poor People Zone” (Winter 2012)
• “The Black Zone” (Summer 2012)

Also, we nominated the following writers for the 38th Annual Pushcart Prize:

Poetry
• Natasha Tretheway, “Enlightenment” (Spring 2012)
• Traci Brimhall, “The Hunger River” (Summer 2012)

Essay
• William Logan, “Elizabeth Bishop at Summer Camp” (Spring 2012)
• Janna Malamud Smith, “On Ruthlessness and Art-Making” (Summer 2012)

Fiction
• Joyce Carol Oates, “A Book of Martyrs” (Fall 2012)
• Maggie Shipstead, “Labor” (Fall 2012)

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