May 21, 2025, 10:27am
Today, the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP) announced the finalists for its eleventh annual Firecracker Awards, which celebrate “the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence.”
Winners in the books categories will receive $2,000, to be split between the press and the author or translator, and winner in magazine categories will receive $1,000. Winners will be announced June 26, 2025. In the meantime, here are the finalists:
FICTION
Obligations to the Wounded by Mubanga Kalimamukwento, published by University of Pittsburgh Press
The World With Its Mouth Open by Zahid Rafiq, published by Tin House
Vague Predictions & Prophecies by Daisuke Shen, published by CLASH Books
Medusa of the Roses by Navid Sinaki, published by Grove Atlantic
Amphibian by Tyler Wetherall, published by Ig Publishing
CREATIVE NONFICTION
We’re Alone by Edwidge Danticat, published by Graywolf Press
Fire Eater: A Translator’s Theology by Chloe Garcia Roberts, published by co•im•press
Low: Notes on Art & Trash by Jaydra Johnson, published by Fonograf Editions
Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home by Chris La Tray, published by Milkweed Editions
Frighten the Horses by Oliver Radclyffe, published by Grove Atlantic
POETRY
Cloud Missives by Kenzie Allen, published by Tin House
Consider the Rooster by Oliver Baez Bendorf, published by Nightboat Books
Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi, published by Wave Books
Besaydoo by Yalie Saweda Kamara, published by Milkweed Editions
A Domestic Lookbook by JoAnne McFarland, published by Grid Books
MAGAZINES/BEST DEBUT
Fruitslice
new words
Revel
Short Reads
The Weganda Review
MAGAZINES/GENERAL EXCELLENCE
Aster(ix) Journal
Circumference
The Common
The Evergreen Review
The Hopkins Review
Joyland Magazine