Previous Award Winners


Congratulations to all winners!

* denotes award inaugural year
^ denotes inactive awards

Benjamin Saltman Award

2021 – A Plucked Zither, Phuong T. Vuong
2020 – Flutter, Kick, Anna V. Q. Ross
2019 – I Was A Bell, M. Soledad Caballero
2018 – Body of Render, Felicia Zamora
2017 – deciduous qween, Matty Layne Glasgow
2016 – Southern Tongues Leave Us Shining, Mark Wagenaar
2015 – As Burning Leaves, Gabriel Jesiolowski
2014 – Primary Source, Jason Schneiderman
2013 – This Is Not a Skyscraper, Dean Kostos
2012 – Our Vanishing, Frannie Lindsay
2011 – Palace of Contemplating Departure, Brynn Saito
2010 – But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise, Lillian Yvonne-Bertram
2009 – The Luckless Age, Steve Kistulentz
2008 – Tongue, Rachel Contreni Flynn
2007 – Allegheny, Monogahela, Erinn Batykeffer
2006 – Golem of Los Angeles, Tony Barnstone
2005 – Histories of Bodies, Mariko Nagai
2004 – Amplified Dog, Charles Harper Webb
2003 – Lamp of the Body, Maggie Smith
2002 – State of Blessed Gluttony, Susan Thomas
2001 – Orioling, Ann Silsbee
2000 – Cold Angel of Mercy, Amy Randolph
1999* – The Owning Stone, Jim Peterson

Fiction Award

2021 – Memento Mori, Eunice Hong
2020 – If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home, Pete Hsu
2019 – Underneath, Lily Hoang
2018 – Animal Wife, Lara Ehrlich
2017 – Living Things, Landon Houle
2016 – Trash Mountain, Bradley Bazzle
2015* – Cake Time, Siel Ju

Women’s Prose Award

2020 – The Healing Circle, Coco Picard
2019 – Deadheading & Other Stories, Beth Gilstrap
2018 – Sugar, Smoke, Song, Reema Rajbanshi
2017* – Like Wings, Your Hands, Elizabeth Earley

Quill Prose Prize

2021 – Carrion, Wes Jamison
2020 – From the Longing Orchard, Jessica Jop
2019 – Coffee, Shopping, Murder, Love, Carlos Allende
2018 – Summer of the Cicadas, Chelsea Catherine
2017 – The Falls of the Wyona, David Brendan Hopes
2016* – Scissors, Paper, Stone, Martha K. Davis

Partnership Awards

Red Hen Press does not conduct the submission and judging process for the following awards. Red Hen Press is in partnership with the following organizations to publish selected works.

Letras Latinas

In partnership with the University of Notre Dame, winners are selected biennially.

2021 – A Camera Obscura, Carl Marcum
2019 – Rattlesnake Allegory, Joe Jiménez
2017 – Beasts Behave In Foreign Land, Ruth Irupé Sanabria
2015 – The Gravedigger’s Archaeology, William Archila
2013* – Speaking Wiri Wiri, Dan Vera

The Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction

In partnership with the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.

2020 – Your Nostalgia is Killing Me, John Weir
2019 – A Gypsy’s Book of Revelation, Cécile Barlier
2018* – Boy Oh Boy, Zachary Doss

Nonfiction Award^

The award is no longer active
2021 – Keeping Quiet: Sixteen Essays on Silence, Adriana Paramo
2020 – Floppy: Tales of a Genetic Freak of Nature at the End of the World, Alyssa Graybeal
2019 – American Bastard, Jan Beatty
2018 – Pretzel, Houdini, & Olive, Deborah Thompson
2017 – The Rib Joint: A Memoir in Essays, Julia Koets
2016 –The Perpetual Motion Machine, Brittany Ackerman
2015* – Circadian, Chelsey Clammer

Novella Award^

The award is no longer active
2020 – Only the Cat Knows, Ruyan Meng
2019 – From the Caves, Thea Prieto
2018* – High Skies, Tracy Daugherty