A Forrest City native and the author of five poetry collections, Spears Jones won the Jackson Poetry Prize in 2017 and is currently the State Poet of New York, where she’s lived since the 1970s.
Porter Fund Literary Prize
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The 2023 Porter Fund Literary Prize goes to Jay Jennings
Arkansas journalist Jay Jennings is the newest recipient of the Porter Fund Literary Prize, a $5,000 award given annually to writer of distinction with an Arkansas connection. Jennings has written for Sports Illustrated, Tennis, Time Out New York, Artforum, The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Vogue, Gravy, The Lowbrow Reader and the Oxford American, where he was an editor from 2015 to 2021.
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Little Rock author Mark Barr awarded 2022 Porter Fund Prize
Mark Barr, the little Rock-based author of the acclaimed novel “Watershed,” is the recipient of this year’s Porter Fund Literary Prize, a $5,000 prize awarded annually to a writer of distinction with an Arkansas connection. Past winners of the Porter Prize include Mara Leveritt, Morris Arnold, Kevin Brockmeier and Jo McDougall, the former Poet Laureate of Arkansas.
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From Ayana to Yamada: 21 Arkansas creators who saved 2021
A year-end roundup of 21 Arkansas-connected creators who made 2021 less of a dumpster fire.
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Jen Fawkes wins 2021 Porter Fund Prize
The annual Porter Fund Literary Prize, founded in 1984 by novelist Jack Butler and novelist and lawyer Phil McMath, goes to fiction writer Jen Fawkes.
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Prayer, Praise, Problem: A Q&A and excerpts from poet Geffrey Davis
We talked with poet Geffrey Davis over email about his latest, “Night Angler,” a 96-page wonder that manages to make a poem about evasive trout feel as if it belongs next to an elegiac verse for Tamir Rice or, as in “Pillow Kombat with the Ultimate Sleep Fighter,” alongside a meditation on Davis’ life as a new parent.
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Sandy Longhorn awarded Porter Fund Literary Prize
Poet and professor Sandy Longhorn joins the ranks of 30 writers to be awarded the prestigious Porter Fund Literary Prize.
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2013 Porter Fund Literary Prize awarded to Pat Carr
Pat Carr won the 2013 Porter Fund Literary Prize.