Please check back for details on the next offering of the Russell Prize in Fall 2018
The Russell Prize
Two Sylvias Press would like to congratulate
our 2014 Winner & Finalists ~
Recipient of the 2014 Russell Prize:
Emily Skaja
Emily Skaja grew up next to a cemetery in northern Illinois. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from the Black Warrior Reviewwebsite, Indiana Review, The Journal, PANK, The Pinch, Pleiades, and Southern Indiana Review. In 2013, she was a finalist for the Indiana Review Poetry Prize, and in 2014, she was the runner-up for the Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest. Emily holds degrees in Creative Writing from Millikin University and Temple University, and she is currently a third-year poet in the MFA program at Purdue, where she works as Poetry Co-Editor of Sycamore Review.
emilyskaja.net
Emily Skaja grew up next to a cemetery in northern Illinois. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from the Black Warrior Reviewwebsite, Indiana Review, The Journal, PANK, The Pinch, Pleiades, and Southern Indiana Review. In 2013, she was a finalist for the Indiana Review Poetry Prize, and in 2014, she was the runner-up for the Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest. Emily holds degrees in Creative Writing from Millikin University and Temple University, and she is currently a third-year poet in the MFA program at Purdue, where she works as Poetry Co-Editor of Sycamore Review.
emilyskaja.net
Finalists:
Jessica Bixel Jessica Bixel sometimes lives in Michigan, sometimes Ohio. Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Birdfeast, Parcel, Handsome, Sink Review and Houseguest. |
Ruth Madievsky Originally from Moldova, Ruth Madievsky lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in ZYZZYVA, The Journal, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. She was a 2014 finalist in The Paris-American’s Reading Series Contest and in Tupelo Quarterly’s TQ5 Poetry Contest. Her chapbook, If the Body Is a Door was runner-up in the 2014 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition and a finalist in the 2014 Coal Hill Review Chapbook Contest. She is a chapbook reader for Gold Line Press, a doctoral student at The University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, and a research assistant at an HIV clinic specializing in maternal care in Downtown Los Angeles. |
José Edmundo Ocampo Reyes Born and raised in the Philippines, José Edmundo Ocampo Reyes received his M.F.A. from Columbia University, where he received an Academy of American Poets Prize. Before coming to the United States, he worked in finance for five years. In 2005, the Hudson Review featured four of his poems in its New Writers issue. His poems have since appeared in such journals as Michigan Quarterly Review, Pleiades, Rattle, American Literary Review, Natural Bridge, Inch, and Crab Orchard Review; and have been anthologized in The Powow River Anthology (edited by Alfred Nicol), Crowns and Oranges: Works by Young Philippine Poets (edited by Cirilo Bautista and Ken Ishikawa), and Villanelles (edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali). |
Jennifer Givhan
Jennifer Givhan was a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She was the 2013 DASH Literary Journal Poetry Prize winner, an Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize finalist and a 2014 Prairie Schooner Book Prize finalist for her collection Karaoke Night at the Asylum. Her work has appeared in over seventy journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets 2013, Crab Creek Review, Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, Rattle, The Collagist, cream city review, and The Columbia Review. She teaches at Western New Mexico University and online poetry workshops with The Rooster Moans. You can visit Givhan online at http://jennifergivhan.com. |
Sylvia Byrne Pollack After four decades in cancer research, with a brief stint as a mental health counselor, Sylvia Byrne Pollack turned to poetry. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in Floating Bridge Review, Solo Novo, and Clover: A Literary Rag among other literary journals and is forthcoming in Crab Creek Review and Sinister Wisdom. She received the 2013 Mason's Road Winter Literary Award for her poem “Gregory.” Sylvia lives with her wife Molly in Seattle, surrounded by their kids, grandkids and extended family. She loves travel, really good food and mystery novels. She’s a decent short order cook but doesn’t bake – she’d rather fuss over a line break than a cake recipe. |
Michael Schmeltzer Michael Schmeltzer earned an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop. His honors include numerous Pushcart Prize nominations, theGulf Stream Award for Poetry, and the Blue Earth Review’s Flash Fiction Prize. He has been a finalist in various contests including the Four Way Books Intro and Levis Prizes, the Zone 3 Press First Book Prize, as well as the OSU Press/The Journal Award in Poetry. He helps editA River & Sound Review and has been published in PANK, Rattle, Natural Bridge, Mid-American Review, and Barely South Review, among others. |
Information about The Russell Prize :
Supporting the voices of poets of all ages
who have not yet published a full-length collection
or a chapbook of poetry.
Named after Gale A. Russell & Gloria Baker-Russell, the parents of Two Sylvias Press's cofounder Kelli Russell Agodon (who helped support her as a young poet), The Russell Prize was created to assist and support a poet who has not yet published his/her first full collection of poems or chapbook. The prize consists of a $500 cash prize and vintage medal (sticking to Two Sylvias Press’ belief that poets deserve trophies and medals) and given to a poet of exceptional talent and merit who has not yet received recognition in the publishing world.
This prize has been created for no other reason than to pass along some good energy (and money) to a poet without a first book or chapbook. We know how hard the early stages can be for poets, and we want to tell you that we believe in you.
Check back in September 2016 or 2017 to learn more about the next Two Sylvias Press Russell Prize and the submission dates for it.
who have not yet published a full-length collection
or a chapbook of poetry.
Named after Gale A. Russell & Gloria Baker-Russell, the parents of Two Sylvias Press's cofounder Kelli Russell Agodon (who helped support her as a young poet), The Russell Prize was created to assist and support a poet who has not yet published his/her first full collection of poems or chapbook. The prize consists of a $500 cash prize and vintage medal (sticking to Two Sylvias Press’ belief that poets deserve trophies and medals) and given to a poet of exceptional talent and merit who has not yet received recognition in the publishing world.
This prize has been created for no other reason than to pass along some good energy (and money) to a poet without a first book or chapbook. We know how hard the early stages can be for poets, and we want to tell you that we believe in you.
Check back in September 2016 or 2017 to learn more about the next Two Sylvias Press Russell Prize and the submission dates for it.
