Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Winners
Winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook contest Michael Schmeltzer will read from his new chapbook, Elegy/Elk River. Also reading are finalists Maya Jewell Zeller, Brian Cooney, and Linda Malnack.
Michael Schmeltzer is the author of Elegy/Elk River, winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award, and a forthcoming full-length poetry book from Two Sylvias Press. He earned an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop, and his honors include numerous Pushcart Prize nominations, the Gulf Stream Award for Poetry, and the Blue Earth Review’s Flash Fiction Prize. He has been published in various journals such as Rattle, PANK, New South Journal, and Mid-American Review, with work forthcoming in Meridian, Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere.
Brian Cooney grew up in New York, picked up a PhD in 19th c. British Literature from University of South Carolina, and lives now in Spokane, where he teaches at Gonzaga University. He was awarded the 2014 Paula Jones Gardiner Memorial Award by Floating Bridge Review, finished second in the 2014 Lumina poetry contest (judged by Patricia Lockwood), and was a finalist in the 2015 Floating Bridge chapbook contest. His poems have appeared in a number of journals and chapbooks. The Descent of Ham (Alice Blue) and My Idea of Fun (Floating Bridge) will be published in 2015.
Linda Malnack lives and writes in Normandy Park, Washington. Her poetry has been published in various literary magazines, including Blackbird, Crab Creek Review, The Nassau Review, and Willow Springs. Linda is a co-editor for the on-line poetry journal, Switched-on Gutenberg.
Maya Jewell Zeller grew up in the northwest, mostly living in coastal Oregon and Washington. She has taught writing and literature to high school and college students, fourth graders, and senior citizens, and has been a writer-in-residence in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Her work has won awards from Sycamore Review, New South, New Ohio Review, Dogwood, Florida Review, and Crab Orchard Review, and has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Her first book, Rust Fish, was released in April 2011 from Lost Horse Press; her chapbook, Yesterday, the Bees, will be out in fall 2015 from Floating Bridge Press. Other manuscripts have been finalists with the National Poetry Series, University of Wisconsin, Waywiser, and elsewhere, and poems, essays, and reviews appear in journals such as Bellingham Review, West Branch, Pleiades, New Ohio Review, High Desert Journal, Cincinnati Review, and Rattle. Maya serves as fiction editor for Crab Creek Review; she also co-directs the Beacon Hill Reading Series in Spokane, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and young son, as well as where she teaches English at Gonzaga University.