Two stories from the New England Review have been selected for inclusion in the next Pushcart Prize collection: McKenna Marsden’s “Suffering in Motion” (NER 40.4) and Lindsay Starck’s “Baikal” (NER 41.4). The XLVI edition will be published in November 2021.
McKenna Marsden, a current MFA candidate at the University of Maryland-College Park, grew up in Oregon and spent the majority of their adult life in greater Boston. “Suffering in Motion” was their first publication. Marsden talks to NER staff reader Laur Freymiller about “Suffering in Motion” in our Behind the Byline feature. The story is also read aloud by Madison Middleton in the latest episode of the NER Out Loud podcast, followed by a conversation between reader and writer.
Lindsay Starck was born in Wisconsin and raised in the Milwaukee Public Library. She went on to study literature and writing at Yale, Notre Dame, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently teaches at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Starck shared the story behind “Baikal” in her recent “Behind the Byline” feature with staff reader Evgeniya Dame.
From the publisher: The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. Since 1976, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in our annual collections.