Kate Braverman Wins Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize

FRANTIC TRANSMISSIONS TO AND FROM LOS ANGELES: AN ACCIDENTAL MEMOIR by Kate Braverman has been chosen as the winner of the first annual Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Braverman will receive a $12,000 advance. Graywolf will publish FRANTIC TRANSMISSIONS TO AND FROM LOS ANGELES in February 2006.

Robert Polito served as the outside judge for the contest, and Braverman was his first choice. Polito said, “This is a book of many wonders, an enthralling mix of memoir, history, and fever dream, and I know of nothing exactly like it.  But I was reminded sometimes of the great innovative and idiosyncratic personal chroniclers of the past—Virginia Woolf, say, or even Thomas Browne, Robert Burton, and Daniel Defoe. There were many fine, beautiful manuscripts submitted this year, yet Kate Braverman's emerged as the boldest, and the most original.”

Over 150 manuscripts were considered for the prize. Director and Publisher Fiona McCrae noted: “It was a very thorough and enjoyable process. We looked at every submission carefully. The winning manuscript, by Kate Braverman, was the one that we felt said the most, in the most interesting way.”

On winning the prize, Braverman commented, “As an experimental poet, edgy short fiction writer, novelist, and essayist, this recognition by Graywolf of a work that is simultaneously historical, hallucinatory, stand-up comedy monologue, magical incantations, reportage, and fiction is extraordinarily gratifying.”

Graywolf’s editors and Polito will consider submissions for the second annual prize during September 2005.  

Kate Braverman has been writing poetry, short fiction, novels, and essays since 1975. Her novels include Lithium for Medea, Palm Latitudes, and The Incantation of Frida K. Her fiction has twice been included in Best American Short Stories, and she has also received an O.Henry Prize, the Carver Prize, the Mississippi Review Prize, and an Isherwood Fellowship. Her work has been anthologized in the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, the Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and the Picador Book of Contemporary American Stories.  A portion of FRANTIC TRANSMISSIONS TO AND FROM LOS ANGELES won the Economist Prize, and fragments of the book have appeared in the Mississippi Review, Zyzzyva, and the Los Angeles Times.  She lives in San Francisco.

Robert Polito is a poet, biographer, and critic. His books include Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography; Doubles; and A Reader's Guide to James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover. The recipient of Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim fellowships, Robert Polito is the Director of the Graduate Writing Program at The New School in New York.

Submission Guidelines for Second Annual Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize