We are thrilled to announce that prize judge Nandi Comer has selected J Girls TV by Rochelle Hurt as the winner of the 2021 Blue Light Books Prize! Thank you all for your submissions and for making this year’s Blue Light Books Prize possible. J Girls TV will be published by Indiana University Press in 2022 as part of the Blue Light Books Series, which includes previous prize-winning collections, Girl with Death Mask by Jenn Givhan, God Had a Body by Jennie Maria Malboeuf, and The World of Dew and Other Stories by Julian Mortimer Smith.
On J Girls TV, Nandi Comer said:
“What does it mean to become a woman? In J Girls TV, Rochelle Hurt has produced a cinematic anthem, a war cry against gender norms, and a sad reminder of how little has changed for girls traversing the rocky journey into adulthood. The strength of this collection is in the collective experiences where the body becomes an object of desire and the origin of resistance. These poems are unapologetic and tender. Part theater, part screenplay, part poetry, J Girls TV is a genre-blending collection demanding the reader see these archetypes as real people with real stories and real unspeakable trauma.”
FINALISTS
Abigail Goodhart, Neither Kind of Body
Keith Donnell, Jr., Huck
Michael M. Weinstein, Pretender
Joanne Mallari, Echo is the Ghost of Sound
Interested in more publishing opportunities with IR / IU Press? The Don Belton Fiction Reading Period is open May 1 – May 31. Send fiction manuscripts up to 80,000 words for a chance to win $1,000 and publication.