The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference of Middlebury College is pleased to announce the winners of the 2003 eighth annual Bakeless Literary Publication Prizes. Spencer Reece's The Clerk's Tale was chosen by Louise Glück for the Poetry prize. Peter Duval's Rear View was chosen by Jay Parini for the Fiction prize. Amy Charlotte Benson's Legends of the Sparkling-Eyed Boy was chosen by Ted Conover for the Creative Nonfiction prize. The three winning authors will have their book length manuscripts published by Houghton Mifflin, in its distinguished Mariner Original Paperback line. In addition, they will receive fellowships to attend the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in August, 2004. Guidelines for next prize will be available June 1st.
2003 Bakeless Poetry Prize
Spencer Reece was born in 1963 in Hartford, Connecticut. He has worked for Brooks Brothers for many years. He now lives in Lantana, Florida. He received a BA from Wesleyan University in 1985, and continued his education at the University of York, England, earning a Master's in English Renaissance Poetry. He went on to earn another Master's degree, this time in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School. His poems have been published in many magazines and periodicals, including Boulevard, Dandelion, Imago, and Painted Bride Quarterly, and he is the recipient of a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
2003 Bakeless Fiction Prize
A graduate of Boston University's Creative Writing Program, Peter Duval also holds advanced degrees in English literature from the University of Illinois and cinema studies from New York University. His fiction has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Chelsea, Exquisite Corpse, Grain, Northwest Review and West Branch. He has twice received grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the second in support of a novel currently in progress. His story "Still Life" won the 1997 World's Best Short Short Story Contest. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, the poet Kim Bridgford, and their son, Nick, and works as an independent web applications developer.
2003 Bakeless Creative Nonfiction Prize
Amy Benson is originally from Detroit. She received a BS in Biology from Bowling Green State University and an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama, followed by three years in the PhD program in literature at Rutgers, from which she is ABD. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Mid-American Review, Pleiades, New Orleans Review, and West Branch. Prose has appeared in Fourth Genre, Quarterly West, Sonora Review, Literal Latte, and River Teeth. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Northwest Missouri State University, where she also co-edits The Laurel Review.