Alaska Quarterly Review continues to soar with more national accolades

Several works originally published in Alaska Quarterly Review (AQR) have recently been selected for recognition in major national awards anthologies. AQR has served as a literary springboard for many authors during its 27 years in existence.

• The Elegant Eyeball by John Gamel, was selected for The Best American Essays 2010 (Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Maynard by Mary Stewart Atwell was selected for The Best American Mystery Stories 2010 (Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Two poems, W.S. Merwin's The Silence of the Mine Canaries and Pattiann Roger's A Blind Astronomer in the Age of Stars appear in The Best American Poetry 2009 (Scribner) and another poem, Henri Cole's Sunflower, appears in the 2010 Pushcart Prize: The Best of the Small Presses, distributed by W.W. Norton
• One AQR story, The Other Woman by Kirstin Allio is cited among the distinguished stories of the year in The Best American Short Stories 2009 (Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and a featured author in that collection, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, published her very first story in AQR
• In 2006, AQR published a short story, Homicide Survivors Picnic, by a new writer, Lorraine M. Lopez. That work became the title story of her collection of stories published in 2009. The collection was named a finalist for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America's largest peer-juried prize for fiction. Lopez was among an inspiring group of authors, including Sherman Alexie for War Dances (Grove Press); Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna (Harper); Lorraine M. Lopez for Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories (BkMk Press); Lorrie Moore for A Gate at the Stairs (Knopf); and Colson Whitehead for Sag Harbor (Doubleday). Sherman Alexie took the prize, but AQR was a springboard for a new author to reach the top echelon of literary publishing.