Subnivean never flees from chilling poems, penetrating stories, words that whip our perspectives around. Housed at the State University of New York at Oswego, where 4x more snow falls on our city than Manhattan, we’ve learned to persist. When winter comes, we reject migration. We use the cold itself as insulation.
Marge Piercy. Dan Rivas. Paige Blair. J.M. Braun. Alayna Powell. Abubakar Auwal. Sara R. Burnett. EJ Green. B. Fulton Jennes. George Goetz. Madeline Rosales. Jaime Gill. Neha Rayamajhi. Michael Loyd Gray. Laura Leigh Morris. Ace Chu.
SUBNIVEAN AWARDS
2024-2025 WINNERS
POETRY
B. FULTON
JENNES
“These tender, attentive poems navigate the spaces between shame, desire, and grief. I am drawn to their bold, compassionate vision, to their vigorous music. The word grace kept returning to me as I read this selection: grace as we account of our losses, grace for the harms we conceal, grace for the difficult choices we confront. Here is poetry that transcends, bridges the gaps of our isolation, and widens our sense of the world.”
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— Albert Abonado, Final Judge in Poetry
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FICTION
JAIME
GILL
“‘The Drinking Game’ may have been written beyond U.S. borders, yet it’s a familiar one that nearly twenty-nine million Americans are losing every day. What’s less familiar is this masterful short story’s gamification: a structural choice emphasizing the sticky traps and slippery loops of alcohol abuse. Albeit punctuated with joy and brilliance, ‘The Drinking Game’ is maddening at best. At not-quite-worst, this game finishes us before we finish it.”
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— Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, Final Judge in Fiction​
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2024 NEW WRITERS AWARD
PAIGE
BLAIR
This year, Central New York high school student Paige Blair was selected as the Subnivean New Writers Award winner, earning a scholarship, mentorship, a bookstore gift certificate and a blurb about her writing. You can read Paige's poetry in Issue 10 of Subnivean, or watch our video adaptation in Issue 11. This year, Subnivean again invited talented new writers to participate in a special opportunity for high school students living in our New York headquarters’ seven-county region: Oswego County, Onondaga County, Oneida County, Herkimer County, Madison County, Cayuga County and Cortland County.
We are honored to celebrate our five 2024 finalists:
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Lucas Anzalone, from Oswego, NY
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Paige Blair, from Cazenovia, NY
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Makaylia Cuyler, from Oswego, NY
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Gabriella Warner, from Oswego, NY
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Millie Wu, from Skeneateles, NY
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LISTEN
SUBNIVEAN
EPISODE 7: WAR
Get ready to be read to like a baby at bedtime. In Episode 7, Subnivean presents a boy trying to figure out his neighbor's disappearance and a mom trying to figure out her boy. Stories by George Goetz and Laura Leigh Morris. Special thanks to voice actors Michael Daniel Vodzogbe and Larissa Wolfer—and to our audio team: hosts Robert Ferrara and Larissa Wolfer, editor Ryan Joyce and producer/editor Soma Mei Sheng Frazier.
LAURA LEIGH
MORRIS
GEORGE
GOETZ
WATCH
I DON'T GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE
by PAIGE BLAIR
"Holding hands around the table
asking, asking, asking—"
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ABOUT THE CREATOR
Paige Blair, a sophomore at Cazenovia High School, was named winner of the 2023-24 Subnivean New Writers’ Award competition. Read her poem here.
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"Paige Blair's poems tell us she no longer goes to church. Yet this divine young writer is earning her own following: get in now, readers, before the pews are packed too full. "
— Subnivean
I Don't Go to Church Anymore, by Paige Blair
NEWS & EVENTS
JOIN US APRIL 30 FOR THE SUBNIVEAN AWARDS:
Get Read to Like A Baby at Bedtime
"...AGGHK!"
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— Albert Abonado and Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
What do 2024 National Poetry Series winner Albert Abonado and San Francisco Chronicle favorite Soma Mei Sheng Frazier have in common?
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They can both feel their brains melting as they struggle to select a single literary competition winner for Subnivean. Catch our final judges in conversation, learn ahead of the official announcement (forthcoming in our May issue) who has won the 2025 Subnivean Awards in poetry and fiction, and best of all, hear our finalists read from the winning works:
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Madeline Rosales
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Michael Loyd Gray
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B. Fulton Jennes
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Neha Rayamajhi
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Sara Burnett
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Jaime Gill
Learn more about the event
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THE SUBNIVEAN
AWARDS
U.S. POET LAUREATE EMERITUS JUAN FELIPE HERRERA & DANIEL HANDLER:
Literary Legends in Conversation
"...and if I went all out, I would probably have pistachio in there."
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— Jf Herrera
What do U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera and Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler have in common? Hint: it's not fave ice cream flavors!
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Subnivean. Catch these heavyweight authors in conversation, and get read to like a baby at bedtime by last year's Subnivean Awards finalists and winners: poets Artemisio Romero y Carver, Moni Brar, Alicia Rebecca Myers and Lauren Holguin; fiction writers Avtar Singh, Melissa Brown and Zach Swiss.
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THANKS TO OUR READERS FOR PUTTING US ON THE MAP
— News feature shines a bright spotlight
SUNDAY
December 15, 2024
Thanks to all y'all, we've grown a bunch since providing the numbers for this SUNY Oswego news feature.
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Beyond reaching every continent but Antarctica (get with the program, penguins) in our first five years, we've now received submissions from writers working in 63 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and all 50 U.S. states as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
So, writers holed up in Antarctica, let's do this: the fifth annual Subnivean Awards and our Issue 12 reading period are now open.
2021 FIRECRACKER AWARDS
— Subnivean announced as a finalist
MONDAY
May 10, 2021
If you feel the ground shaking beneath you today, that's the result of much barefoot jumping up and down by Subnivean's international community.
Why barefoot? Because this nod from the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) rocks our socks off!
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Regardless of which deserving publication earns the top
Magazine: Best Debut prize at the June 23, 7pm EST awards ceremony, Subnivean is honored to be among the Firecracker Awards finalists. We urge you to join us at this free, virtual event and check out the other finalist publications, as well: more good reading for your commute, lunch break or bedtime...
SNICKET, WHITE & SINCLAIR:
Literary Legends in Conversation
"I would recommend, like, a bottle of Jim Beam ... before Googling yourself."
— Daniel Handler
What do Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler), April Sinclair (whose book, Coffee Will Make You Black, will soon be a major motion picture) and luminary poet Arisa White have in common?
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Subnivean. Catch these heavyweight authors in conversation, and then prepare to get read to like a baby at bedtime by the Subnivean Awards finalists: poets Chaun Ballard, Joan Kwon Glass, Canaan Morse and Emma Wynn; fiction writers Nicole Lynn Cohen, Jared Green, Angie Kang and Kyle Rea.
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