VQR congratulates the 2023 Winners

The Emily Clark Balch Prizes and the Staige D. Blackford Prize were created to honor the best writing to appear in the pages of VQR each year. Past recipients include John Berryman, Philip Caputo, Pauline W. Chen, Carolyn Forché, Natasha Trethewey, and Kevin Young. The VQR Prize for Photography was created to recognize the best photo portfolio to appear in our pages. Each prize includes a monetary award of $1,000.

Emily Clark Balch Prize for Fiction
Ximena Blanco
“Lilies for Romina”
 (Spring/Summer)

Emily Clark Balch Prize for Poetry
Mary Jo Bang
“A Starting Point”
“In the Movie of My Unraveling Mind”
“The Dead of Winter”
“The War”
“This is what you are, the self says to the self”
“Today you’re the still photographer ”
 (Spring/Summer)

Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction
Nonfiction-Essay: J. C. Lee
“Mother River”
 (Fall)

Nonfiction-Reporting: Emily Silverman
“Best Practices”
 (Fall)

The VQR Prize for Photography
Lynn Johnson
“The Taboo Medicine”
(Winter)