Announcing Half Mystic's Nominees for the 2021 Pushcart Prize
In the scream of flood that has comprised 2020, we’ve found redemption & dry land in the books & journal issues we’ve had the privilege to publish. It was a slower year than normal at HM as we dodged a pandemic, political unrest, & soaring personal grief—but we still put out some of the most searing & joyful & memory-touched work we’ve shared in the history of our press. That, of course, is all thanks to you. Here, for the fourth year running, are Half Mystic’s nominees for the 2021 Pushcart Prize:
“West-East Divan” by Jonah Howell (in Half Mystic Journal’s Issue VIII: Sforzando)
“Dissonance” by Yejin Suh (in Half Mystic Journal’s Issue VIII: Sforzando)
“Poem in Which Carly Simon Says the Song Is About Me” by Matt Mitchell (in Half Mystic Journal’s Issue VIII: Sforzando)
“Blue Morpho Butterfy Eats All the Amitriptyline and Flys” by Marie Conlan (in Say Mother Say Hand)
“With and Against the Grain” by Sammie Downing (in The Family That Carried Their House on Their Backs)
That authors like this entrust us with their words never ceases to lift us up & stun us whole. To every one of our 2021 nominees, thank you. To every writer, musician, & artist who has submitted to any of our projects this year, thank you. Half Mystic began as a grand experiment in championing work that lives between literature & song, hope & fight, horizon & sea. Each of these pieces, every time we reread them, reminds us again & again why we’re here & who we’re becoming. Best of luck to all of our 2021 nominees. Here’s to possibility. xx