The Bridge Eight Fiction Prize is an annual contest for full-length fiction manuscripts, whether they be a novel, a collection of stories, or multiple novellas. The winner receives $1,000, publication in Spring of 2023, and will be announced on Friday, May 13th.
Congratulations to Our Finalists
This is our fourth year of running this contest, and it never fails to amaze us how many quality works of literature are out there, waiting for a home. Unseen and uncelebrated. Frankly, it’s bullshit, and while shutting this whole thing down would be better for our personal lives, we feel a responsibility to these kinds of books. We wish we could publish all of them. We wish more presses like us would pop up. We wish someone would give us money so we could give it to these writers.
Congratulations to everyone. Scroll down to read about the five finalists for the 2022 Bridge Eight Fiction Prize.
Bridge Eight Fiction Prize Finalists
The Buddha Train by Stephen Policoff
STEPHEN POLICOFF’s first novel won the James Jones Award and was published by Carroll & Graf in 2004. His second novel, COME AWAY, won the Dzanc Award and was a published by Dzanc Books in 2014. His third novel, DANGEROUS BLUES, will be published by Flexible Press in November. He is currently Clinical Professor of Writing in Global Liberal Studies at New York University.
MONARCH: Stories by Emily Jon Tobias
EMILY JON TOBIAS is an American author and poet raised in the Midwest who lives and works on the coast of Southern California. Her work has appeared in literary journals such as Santa Clara Review, Talking River Review, Flying South Literary Journal, Furrow Literary Journal, The Opiate Magazine, The Ocotillo Review, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Jerry Jazz Musician with work nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and upcoming in Tahoma Literary Review, Big Muddy, TulipTree Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Writing from Pacific University Oregon and a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Missteps Washed by the Rain by Cynthia Franco
CYNTHIA FRANCO is a poet and storyteller from the Dominican Republic who has lived in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and briefly in Louisiana, where she touched American soil for the first time. She is a proud dog-mom to three Cocker Spaniels and is currently learning how to build a desk for her future projects.
Floodwall by Amy Bergen
Originally from Ohio, AMY BERGEN lived in Columbus, Baltimore, and New York City before settling (for now) in Portland, Maine. Her fiction and nonfiction has been published in DIAGRAM, Drunken Boat, The Rumpus, The Lifted Brow, and other places. David Foster Wallace once responded to her letter and gave her some of the most sustaining advice she’s ever received.
Direct Connection by Laura Farmer
LAURA FARMER’s fiction has appeared in the Antioch Review, Bridge Eight, The Iowa Review, The North American Review, Quarter After Eight, and other journals. She directs the Dungy Writing Studio at Cornell College and lives in Iowa with her wife.
