Every year, one of my favorite parts of this job is reading through the Many Voices Projects submissions to see the kind of amazing talent and manuscripts we receive from writers the world over. And each year, it’s an incredibly difficult task to winnow those hundreds of manuscripts to a list of finalists. In such unpredictable times, it’s reassuring to know that great art is still being made. If I had my way, we’d have the time and resources to publish so many more manuscripts than we’ll be able to—any press could fill a whole fantastic publishing year with the submissions we’ve received.
This year, we’ve gotten our list of submissions down to the following eight finalists. We will have a heck of a time selecting a winner. But, for now, congratulations to our finalists! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the announcement of our winner!
Ea Anderson (I Want to be This Girl), 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).
Rosaleen Bertolino’s (The Paper Demon and Other Stories) short stories have most recently appeared in New England Review, Litro, failbetter, and Orca. Born and raised in the Bay Area, she received her MA in English/Creative Writing from SFSU. Now in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, she is co-founder and host of Prose Cafe, a monthly reading series, and at work on a novel, among other projects. More information at www.rosaleenbertolino.com
Taiyon J Coleman (Traveling without Moving: Personal Essays on Motherhood, Love, Equity, and Teaching) is a poet, essayist, and educator. She is a Cave Canem and VONA fellow, and her writing has appeared in Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam; Riding Shotgun: Women Writing about Their Mothers; The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South edited by Nikky Finney; Blues Vision; How Dare We! Write: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse; and What God Is Honored Here: Writing on Miscarriage and Infant Loss by and for Native Women and Women of Color. Taiyon’s poem, “What,” appears in the A Moment of Silence anthology, which offers unabashed accounts by Black artists in Minnesota facing The George Floyd Uprising and COVID-19. Taiyon is a 2017 recipient of a McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship in Creative Prose, and she is one of twelve Minnesota emerging Children’s Writers of Color selected as a recipient of the 2018–2019 Mirrors and Windows Fellowship funded by the Loft Literary Center and the Jerome Foundation. Taiyon is Associate Professor of English and Women’s Studies at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Carrie Grinstead (All Cause) lives in Los Angeles with her husband and dogs. She works as a hospital librarian. Her stories have appeared in Tin House, Joyland, Reservoir, and other journals. She was a winner in The Masters Review Anthology Contest and a finalist for the Driftwood Press Short Story Contest, the Robert C. Jones Prize, the Mary McCarthy Prize, and the St. Lawrence Book Award.
Matt Hall (Mummy Party and Other Stories) holds an MFA from Virginia Tech and currently teaches at Monmouth University. His fiction has appeared in Redivider, The McNeese Review, Fiction Southeast, and is forthcoming from Sequestrum. He is currently working on a suspense/horror novel about Asbury Park, New Jersey, where he currently resides.
Amanda Kabak (Unsafe Haven) is the author of the novels The Mathematics of Change and Upended (forthcoming in 2021), and her stories have been published or are forthcoming in The Massachusetts Review, Tahoma Literary Review, Sequestrum, The Laurel Review, and other print and online periodicals. She has been awarded the Lascaux Review fiction award, Arcturus Review’s Al-Simāk award for fiction, the Betty Gabehart prize from the Kentucky Women Writer’s Conference, and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations.
Darci Dawn Schummer (The Ballad of Two Sisters) is the author of the story collection Six Months in the Midwest (Unsolicited Press), co-author of the prose / poetry collaboration Hinge (broadcraft press), and her work has appeared in Ninth Letter (web edition), American Fiction 17, Necessary Fiction, Midway Journal, Compose Journal, Paper Darts, and Pithead Chapel, among other places. Her work has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She teaches writing and edits The Thunderbird Review at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. You can find her online at www.darcischummer.com.
Tracy Youngblom (Because We Must) holds an M.A. in English from the University of St. Thomas and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Warren Wilson’s low-residency program. She has previously published two chapbooks of poetry (Driving to Heaven, 2010; One Bird a Day, 2018), as well as a full-length collection of poetry (Growing Big, 2013). Her individual poems, stories, and essays have been published in journals such as Shenandoah, St. Katherine Review, New York Quarterly, Cortland Review, Minnesota Monthly, Great River Review, Briar Cliff Review, Westview, Wallace Stevens Journal, and many other places. Award include two Pushcart nominations in poetry. She lives in the Twin Cities and teaches English at Anoka-Ramsey Community College.