2019 Chautauqua Janus Prize Announcement
Chautauqua Institution today announced that it will begin accepting entries for the Chautauqua Janus Prize, now in its second year and boasting a doubled prize amount of $5,000. The Institution’s newest literary prize celebrates an emerging writer’s single work of short fiction or nonfiction for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder readers’ imaginations. In addition to receiving the $5,000 award, the winner will give a lecture on the grounds during the 2019 summer season and appear in a forthcoming issue of the literary journal Chautauqua. The prize is funded by a generous donation from Chautauquans Barbara and Twig Branch.
Named for Janus, the Roman god who looks to both the past and the future, the prize will honor writing with a command of craft that renovates understandings of both. The 2019 winner will be selected by guest judge Vi Khi Nao, who will also lead a prose workshop during the 2019 summer season with the Chautauqua Writers’ Center. Her recent books include the story collection A Brief Alphabet of Torture (winner of FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize), the novel Fish in Exile, and the poetry collections The Old Philosopher (winner of the Nightboat Books Prize for Poetry) and Sheep Machine. Her work also includes film and cross-genre collaboration.
“We were thrilled with the success of our first-ever Janus Prize, from the celebration event featuring our winner, Nicole Cuffy, to her extraordinary, quickly-sold-out chapbook Atlas of the Body. I was already eager to continue building the ways Chautauqua Institution lifts up the future of literature,” said Atom Atkinson, Chautauqua’s director of literary arts. “Thanks to this larger prize, that work can mean even more, and Chautauqua audiences are sure to be richly challenged by literature’s most talented emerging voices.”
Entries for the 2019 Chautauqua Janus Prize are now open and will be accepted through Jan. 15, 2019. Visit chq.org/janus for more information about eligibility and submission guidelines.
About Chautauqua Literary Arts
Chautauqua Literary Arts convenes readers and writers of all ages in community, conversation, intensive craft development, and exploratory learning opportunities. With a history steeped in the literary arts, Chautauqua Institution is the home of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, (CLSC) founded in 1878, which honors at least nine outstanding books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry during every nine-week summer season. The Chautauqua Prize, awarded annually since 2012, celebrates a book of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts. For three decades, writers have enjoyed the unmatched value of our Writers’ Center’s weekly summer workshops with nationally recognized authors, and the annual Writers’ Festival and literary journal Chautauqua continue to engage new readers and writers every year.
About Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue.