John C. Zacharis First Book Award

The John C. Zacharis First Book Award honors the best first book of poetry or fiction by a Ploughshares writer. The award carries a cash prize of $1,500, and feature publication in the "Postscripts" section of the Winter issue. It was started in 1991.[1][2]

Year Winner Book Magazine Issue

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1991 David Wong Louie Pangs of Love (Knopf, 1991) Fiction Winter 1991
1992 Allison Joseph What Keeps Us Here (Ampersand Press, 1991) Poetry Winter 1992
1993 Jessica Treadway Absent Without Leave (Delphinium Books, 1994) Fiction Winter 1993
1994 Tony Hoagland Sweet Ruin (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1992) Poetry Winter 1994
1995 Debra Spark Coconuts for the Saint (Avon Books, 1996) Fiction Winter 1995
1996 Kevin Young Most Way Home (William Morrow, 1996) Poetry Winter 1996
1997 Carolyn Ferrell Don't Erase Me (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997) Fiction Winter 1997
1998 David Gewanter In the Belly (Univ. of Chicago, 1997) Poetry Winter 1998
1999 Elizabeth Gilbert Pilgrims (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1997; Mariner, 1998) Fiction Winter 1999
2000 Dana Levin In the Surgical Theatre (APR) Poetry Winter 2000
2001 Aleksandar Hemon The Question of Bruno (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2000) Fiction Winter 2001
2002 Doreen Gildroy The Little Field of Self (Univ. of Chicago, 2002) Poetry Winter 2002
2003 Maile Meloy Half in Love (Scribner, 2002) Fiction Winter 2003
2004 Mark Turpin Hammer (Sarabande, 2003) Poetry Winter 2004
2005 Richard McCann Mother of Sorrows (Pantheon, 2005) Fiction Winter 2005-06
2006 Thomas Sayers Ellis The Maverick Room (Graywolf, 2005) Poetry Winter 2006-07
2007 Ander Monson Other Electricities (Sarabande, 2005) Fiction Winter 2007-08
2008 Susan Hutton On the Vanishing of Large Creatures (Carnegie-Mellon, 2007) Poetry Winter 2008-09
2009 Paul Yoon Once The Shore: Stories (Sarabande, 2009) Fiction Winter 2009-10
2010 Julia Story Post Moxie (Sarabande, 2010) Poetry Winter 2010-11
2011 Christine Sneed Portraits of a Few People I've Made Cry (Univ. of Mass. Press, 2010) Fiction Winter 2011-12
2012 Heidy Steidlmayer Fowling Piece (Triquarterly Books, 2011) Poetry Winter 2012-13
2013 Lysley Tenorio Monstress (Ecco, 2012) Fiction Winter 2013-14
2014 Roger Reeves King Me (Copper Canyon, 2013) Poetry Winter 2014-15
2015 Carole Burns The Missing Woman and Other Stories (Parthian, 2015) Fiction Winter 2015-16
2016 Danez Smith [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014) Poetry Winter 2016-17
2017 Weike Wang Chemistry (Knopf, 2017) Fiction Winter 2017-18
2018 Kaveh Akbar Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James, 2017) Poetry Winter 2018-19
2019 Xuan Juliana Wang Home Remedies (Hogarth, 2019) Fiction Winter 2019-20
2021 Jamil Jan Kochai 99 Nights in Logar (Viking, 2019) Fiction Winter 2021-22
  1. ^ "About | Ploughshares".
  2. ^ "About | Ploughshares".