Announcing the First Book Prize 2027 Semi-Finalists!

Texas Tech University Press and Iron Horse Literary Review are pleased to announce the semi-finalists for the 2027 First Book Prize, awarded annually to a first book of collected prose. The semi-finalists are:

• Mark Abdon, Hello! from the Flyover States (fiction)

• Noelle Catharine Allen, Stars at Elbow and Foot (fiction)

• Andrea Bianchi, A Pause in the Movement of Time (nonfiction)

• Christopher Chilton, Touch Tank and Other Stories (fiction)

• Jason Gipstein, Lost Moons (fiction)

• Sara Greenslit, What's Not There: Essays (hybrid)

• Jennifer Hanford, A Good Amount of Trauma (fiction)

• Colton Huelle, Funny Stories for Sad People (fiction)

• Barbara Lawhorn, There is No Home, Only the Body (fiction)

• Amy Monticello, A Woman's Prime (nonfiction)

• Evan Ringle, A City without Roofs (fiction)

• Gage Saylor, Righteous Acts of Cowardice (fiction)

• David Schwartz, Vanishing Acts: Stories (fiction)

• Kunal Sharma, The Rooms We Leave Behind (fiction)

• Adam Straus, Motor Cycle Pope (fiction)

• Michael Theriault, A Stain and Other San Francisco Stories (fiction)

• Jack Ward, Cake Eaters (fiction)

• Jeff Widmer, Other Lives (fiction)

The winner will be chosen by Katie Cortese, director of Texas Tech University Press, an associate professor in the Creative Writing Program at Texas Tech University, and author of Make Way for Her and Other Stories. Finalists will be announced in early December and the winner will be named in January or February of next year. Though only one book is guaranteed to receive the $1,000 honorarium and publication, all semi-finalists will be considered for publication.

Congratulations to the semi-finalists! To find out more about our book prize, you can visit the contest page on the IHLR website here.