Pushcart Nominations for 2012

We at The Los Angeles Review love our contributors. We love them so much that it’s difficult to choose a mere six authors from our publication year to nominate for The Pushcart Prize. The difficulty aside, it is, as always, our honor to recommend our writers to The Pushcart Press. This year, we’ve selected:

“Namblish,” essay by Alan Barstow

“Believe,” essay by Nick Ripatrazone

“Meridian Holds the Gun,” poem by Monica McClure

“Wishing on a Shooting Start My Friend Informs Me is Likely Just a Satellite,” poem by Okla Elliott

“A Return to Glencoe,” fiction by David P. Langlinais

“Her Adult Life,” fiction by Jenn Scott

Comments from our editors:

After I chose the two stories for Pushcart Prize nominees, “A Return to Glencoe” by David P. Langlinais and “Her Adult Life” by Jenn Scott, I realized that they both include characters who are unreliable narrators. In the case of “Glencoe,” the reader slowly realizes with a bit of backing up and furrowed brow that the narrator might have illegal or immoral intentions. In “Her Adult Life” we are initially told about her “her inconsistencies,  her flaws, and her chiseled angst.” She spends time thinking about the meaning of a brush against her, so much thought, we realize she doesn’t even quite trust her own thinking. And later, neither does another character, and possibly, neither do we. While Scott’s story is clever, sassy, fast-paced, the Langlinias story moves more slowly, allowing the scenery to seep in, the details to absorb, the pain to slowly register. Both stories are well-done, memorable, and have a completeness about them, a satisfaction that we’ve been told a story, a good story worth thinking about, worth pondering, worth weighing the intentions and actions of the narrators.

–Stefanie Freele, 2012 Fiction Editor

Okla Elliot’s poem, “Wishing on a Shooting Star My Friend Informs Me is Likely Just a Satelite,” melds the insular with the universal, and the colloquial with the carefully crafted. Okla deftly navigates that fine balance to bring to life a moment that transcends all of the aforementioned qualities, creating anew the sensation of gazing into the night sky only to find it gazing back at you. “Meridian Holds the Gun,” by poet Monica McClure, takes the narrative form into unchartered territory with a precision of language that is rarely seen from emerging voices. The poem’s persistent, hard-driving pace ensnares the reader for a thrilling, sharply intellectual ride.

–Tanya Chernov, Poetry and Translations Editor

In “Namblish,” published in Spring 2012, Volume 11, Alan Barstow is the voice of witness for a Namibian community whose continued existence is threatened by AIDS. Barstow deftly shows us that the stakes are high. As the narrative unfolds, so does the reader’s understanding of the dire yet hope-filled situation among Namibia’s children–the future of an entire country. The essay is rich with imagery, peopled with full-dimension characters, and shows deep respect for language– be it foreign or familiar, spoken or un.

Without dark, there can be no light. Published in Fall 2012, Volume 12, Nick Ripatrazone’s “Believe” visits the dark side of Catholicism. In nine haunting, provocative, and revelatory parts, Ripatrazone considers the existence of the devil, and influences, rituals, and implications thereof. This tightly-wrought mini-memoir thoroughly explores this aspect of faith, as well as that of the author himself.

–Ann Beman, Nonfiction Editor