Check out this year’s winning piece in the nonfiction category, The Wrack Line by Mary Birnbaum! Thank you to Ninth Letter for partnering with us for our annual contest!

Just in time for Disquiet, our grand prize winning piece is up at Granta! Can’t wait to see you all there! And in the meantime, read this beaut!

From Disquiet Fiction Faculty Maaza Mengiste’s piece, “This Is What the Journey Does“:

“Stories come back to me, told by a friend who crossed the Sahara to get to Europe by way of North Africa. He spoke of horrifying treatment at the hands of human traffickers and police in detention centers and makeshift prisons. He shared what he could and skipped the rest. In moments when several who made the journey were gathered, I would watch them point to their scars to help fill the lapses in their stories. Sometimes, there was no language capable of adding coherence to what felt impossible to comprehend. Sometimes, it was only the body that bore the evidence, pockmarks and gashes forming their own vocabulary. Staring at the busy intersection, I don’t want to consider what this young man might have gone through to arrive in Italy, to be in the street on this day. That he is alive is a testament to his endurance. What he has been subjected to, what might have caused that scar, what was too much for his mind to accept—these thoughts lead the way to far darker realities than I can possibly know. I look back at the first note I took upon seeing him: ‘You did not leave home like this. This is what the journey does.'”

DO NOT MISS Lisbon’s trendiest quarter!

I’ll take one of everything…

Disquiet Nonfiction Faculty ’18 Chanan Tigay is a finalist for the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize!

The New York Times barely scratches the surface…

Disquiet alum (’15) and guest (’17) has won the prestigious PEN/MALAMUD Award!

A little about Amina from the press release:

Amina Gautier is a prolific award-winning writer of short fiction. In myriad stories that captivate readers and critics alike, she complicates and illuminates the intersection of self and place, with characters who navigate the pitfalls and pleasures of claiming a complex identity in a world that at times seems to insist on simple answers. As Dolen Perkins-Valdez, a member of the PEN/Malamud selection committee, wrote, “Amina Gautier’s unwavering commitment to the short story reveals a writer in full control. And the form is the perfect vehicle for her intellect. Like a scientist who takes apart the human body and puts it back together again to understand how it works, Gautier is unafraid to examine heartbreak, but equally comfortable capturing triumph. Her stories, sweeping and elegant, sophisticated and daring, call the mind and heart to attention.”

We are so excited to announce out 2018 Winners and Finalists!!!

Grand Prize and Fiction Winner: Samsun Knight

Finalists: Emma Bogdonoff, Casey Walker, Emily Pease, Stacy Skolnik, Anessa Ibrahim

Nonfiction Winner: Mary Birnbaum

Finalists: Sarah Van Arsdale, Sarah Cheshire, Molly Giles, R.D. Thomas

Poetry Winner: Kristina Faust

Finalists: Alycia Pirmohamed, Maghread Medbh, Maggie Millner, Susan Nguyen, Scott Withiam

Luso-American FLAD Fellowship Winners:

Shauna Barbosa

George Makana Clark

Jennifer Jean

Bruna Dantas Lobato

Finalists: Zabe Bent, John Colasacco, Sharon Coleman, Ananda Lima, Kathy Martinez, Carlo Matos, Paula Neves, Fabia Oliveira, Sean Rocha, Analeah Rosen

Congratulations to all, and we can’t wait to see you in July!

Disquiet Faculty and Guest Writer at the Disquiet Residency in the Azores, Erica Dawson, has her book-length poem coming out from Tin House this fall!