Rochester, N.Y.––Douglas Watson is winner of the inaugural BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize for his collection The Era of Not Quite. After receiving 126 manuscripts, the collection was selected from among four finalists by BOA Publisher Peter Conners. Douglas Watson will receive a $500 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in Spring 2013.
Of the collection, Peter Conners says, “The first sentence of the first story in Douglas Watson’s The Era of Not Quite bit into me and wouldn’t let go: ‘The trouble: You want Thing A but are stuck with Thing B.’ From that point on, the manuscript only got richer, more surprising, and – most welcomingly – funnier. Watson writes with the kind of humor that makes you chuckle, then sigh. His great skill is to poke holes into the absurdity of the nagging doubts we carry through our daily lives. We laugh with him because we live in this ‘era of not quite’ and Douglas Watson does too. A debut collection like this makes for wonderful company – even hope – as we all go through it together.”
The three other finalists selected were God and Other Megafauna by Kellie Wells, Stories of the Unexplained by Pedro Ponce, and The Violence of Love by Enid Harlow.
Douglas Watson holds an MFA in fiction from Ohio State and an MA in history from Brown. In 2011 he was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. His stories have appeared in Sou’wester, The Journal, Fifty-Two Stories and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn and works as a copyeditor for TIME magazine.
Upon learning that he had won the BOA Short Fiction Prize, Douglas Watson said, “I’m thrilled that The Era of Not Quite will be appearing in BOA Editions’ American Reader series alongside so many terrific books. I couldn’t be happier or more startled. Life is full of surprises, some of them quite good!”
BOA Editions will accept manuscripts for the 2nd annual BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize between April 1, and May 31, 2012. An entry form and fee are required. The guidelines for the 2012 BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize will be announced on www.boaeditions.org later this year.
BOA Editions, Ltd. is celebrating 35 years as one of the premier independent publishers of contemporary poetry and literary fiction. Founded in 1976 by A. Poulin, Jr. to provide a venue for both new and established poets to be published, BOA has released more than 220 titles, including two dozen books of poetry in translation. Many BOA titles and authors have been recognized with literary awards, including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
