The editors at Wandering Aengus Press are delighted to announce the results of the 2021 Wandering Aengus Book Awards. The three selected winners will be published in 2021-2022. Authors are listed in alphabetical order by last name...

WINNERS
 
Michael Schmeltzer: Empire of Surrender (poetry)
Alina Stefanescu: dôr (poetry)
Tarn Wilson: In Praise of Inadequate Gifts (memoir in essays)
 
FINALISTS
 
James Ducat: Two Truths and a Lie
Peter Ludwin: Medicine Crow
Jed Myers: Love in the Empire
 
SEMI-FINALISTS
 
Carrie Chappell: Rooned
Jed Myers: Burning Man
David Starkey: Sheltering in Santa Barbara

We're grateful to all the authors who submitted manuscripts and honored for the opportunity to read their fine works.

What happens when you're an expectant mother with all the excitement and trepidation of the imminent birth and you have to guide your sheep through their own birthing process? If you're like poet and farmer Jessica Gigot, you write a poetry book chronicling the experience of burgeoning motherhood. Aimee Nezhukumatathil, who's "smitten" by Jessica's second poetry collection, says Feeding Hour "will remind you how to care and be cared for." Todd Davis calls Feeding Hour "a poetry of hard-earned joy sewn in the fertile soil of motherhood and farming."

Trail to Table Press, an imprint of Wandering Aengus Press, is delighted and honored to share with you Matthew Daddona's debut poetry book, House of Sound. Poet Chelsea Dingman says of the collection, “‘It takes a lot to say I love you, I mean it / and mean it,’ says the speaker in Matthew Daddona’s rich and impactful debut, House of Sound. These poems articulate not just love as an act, but also absence, longing, and philosophies, all as a measure of life and its relevance. To stay or to go? This is the central question that haunts the speaker. And when one goes, is one ever really gone? These poems ring with questions: ‘I want their wings. I want their answer.’ In sound, memory, and the lack thereof. In life, love—and the lack thereof. This collection is an exciting example of language as meditation, mediation, and conciliation, as well as action. To write, to love, to understand, to contemplate—these are all verbs that require action and attention. Attend to the quiet yearning in these poems. ‘Because a shadow / wants to leave you / but doesn’t know how,’ attend to the way these beautiful poems move through the body as heartsong, as a form of human touch.”

Caroline Hagood writes, "House of Sound takes the reader to a contemplative space that only the best poetry can. Daddona’s dexterous command of language unfurls into stanzas of startling insight. His writing is crystalline, alternating between existential long shots and close-ups of moments so intimate and well-drawn they will break your heart."

Read Caroline Hagood's interview with Matthew Daddona in The Kenyon Review.

We're delighted to share the news that Heather Durham's memoir in essays, Going Feral: Field Notes on Wonder and Wanderlust, has been named a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Nature Writing.

Author David Oates says of the book, "These essays range far, challenge comfort, reveal grace, and often end on landing-points of shocking rightness, in language as lush and right as that world it conveys. A reader could be stirred up here, could be reminded to wander a little (or a lot), could be inspired to shut up and hunker down and let the awkward perfection of the wild reveal itself. Something like hope could appear. Something like spirit.”

Fertile Ground is a novel that brings to light a dark chapter of American history. During the cold spring of 1942 in upstate New York, US government officials steal away German-born farmer Hans Müller in the middle of the night, leaving his wife and two sons alone and without explanation. Has the government made a horrible mistake that threatens to undo their family? Or does Hans' odd obsession with his shortwave radio and foreign newspapers mean his quaint American life has been a lie?

Kevin Miller's poetry collection, Vanish, winner of the Wandering Aengus Book Award, is just as luminous as this cover photo, "Ghost Trees," by Vance Thompson. We can't wait to share it with you!

The virtuosic Philadelphia-based chorus, The Crossing (Donald Nally, conductor) has commissioned Minneapolis composer Edie Hill to compose a new extended work for chorus based on the poetry of Holly J. Hughes. The title for the new work is "Spectral Spirits." Four poems from Passings form the basis for the choral work. The world premiere will be performed December 20th followed by several other performances in The Crossing @ Christmas 2019 concert series in Philadelphia and New York. David Lang's "the little match girl passion" will also be performed.
The full schedule of performances can be found here.

The Wandering Aengus Press Editorial Board had a hard time selecting from the manuscripts submitted for our first book award. So, we're ecstatic to announce the winner, as well as the notable finalists, for this year's book award. Please join us in congratulating the following authors, listed in alphabetical order by last name...

Winner
Kevin Miller - Vanish

Finalists
Keats Conley - Guidance from the God of Seahorses
​Yvonne Higgins Leach - In the Spaces Between Us
Ann Lovett - The Community of Rain
Jed Myer - Of Love in the Empire

We are grateful to all the writers who submitted their manuscripts for consideration. As authors ourselves, we know the work behind writing a book and the courage it takes to send those words out in the world. Many thanks!

The editorial team at Wandering Aengus Press is excited to announce our very first book prize. We are accepting manuscripts of any length through May 31, 2019, and will publish up to three titles in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (including hybrids!). Entry fee is only $20. Go to our Submissions page to enter, and us your beautiful words!

Writers, filmmakers, and scientists, who are also contributors to the anthology For Love of Orcas, gathered to share their words, research, and the latest updates on saving the orcas at the Orcas Island Lit Fest. Co-edited by Andrew Shattuck McBride (not pictured) and Jill McCabe Johnson (far left), the anthology showcases poetry and prose about the endangered Southern Resident orcas and their extended ecosystem. From left to right, panelists Joseph K. Gaydos, Paula MacKay, Jed Myers, and Bob Friel discussed research methods from canine-assisted scat analysis that has revealed a 69% pregnancy failure rate to physiological studies that prove orcas experience a full range of emotions similar to humans. Each panelist shared work from poetry to science writing, and Bob Friel, author and director of the series Salish Sea Wild, shared exclusive video of efforts by Gaydos and others to save the young orca, J50, also known as Scarlet. The panel closed with updates following the Governor's Task Force recommendations, including suggestions to contact Washington State legislators to support and fund four bills to protect the orcas. Learn more about what you can do at the Friends of the San Juans website. Proceeds from the book benefit The SeaDoc Society. To order your copy, click here.