John C. Zacharis First Book Award

Last updated June 13, 2023

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 -
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

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[1] "About | Ploughshares".

[2] "About | Ploughshares".

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