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.
Truth Thomas. Linda Cooper. Marisa Vito. Thaddeus Rutkowski. Calli DeSerio. Simona Zaretsky. David A. Taylor. Genni Gunn. Jordan Dilley. Laton Carter. Noemi Somalvico and Rob Myatt. Sunny Rosen. Mercury Sunderland. Carla Cherry. Thomas Rions-Maehren. Erica Wright. Jonathan Chan. Joy Ladin. Sara Eddy. Patrick Meeds.
SUBNIVEAN AWARDS
2024-2025 JUDGES
POETRY
ALBERT
ABONADO
“There’s always something more to say.”
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— author of 2024 National Poetry Series selection A Field Guide for Accidents and final judge in poetry Albert Abonado
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"Albert Abonado's poems open us up to feast and to wonder." — Chen Chen
FICTION
SOMA MEI SHENG
FRAZIER
“I like sugar in everything but short stories.”
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— award-winning author and final judge in fiction Soma Mei Sheng Frazier
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"Frazier captures the relatable toggle between the private and the collective, between sinking into the anxieties of your life and grieving for the cruelties of the world." —The New York Times
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 6: OXYGEN
Get ready to be read to like a baby at bedtime. In Episode 6, Subnivean presents a woman breathing steadily around the snake coiled in her gut, the oxygen filtered between two people who kiss, and the addictive lightheadedness of replacing air with fire. Stories and poems by Thaddeus Rutkowski, Marisa Vito and Linda Cooper. Special thanks to voice actors Cas Kuersteiner, Cody Weis, Emma Deloff, Yuval Green, Julianna Giudici and Paul Baidy—and to our audio team: hosts Natasha Matusick and Cedric Buschfrers, engineer Cody Weis, director Cas Kuersteiner, coordinator Julianna Giudici and producer Soma Mei Sheng Frazier.
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WATCH
THE CANDLEMAKER
by ADRIENNE LICATA
When the candlemaker offers you a deal, will you take it?
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ABOUT THE CREATOR
Adrienne Licata's The Candlemaker won the Creative Writing Program's top award in digital storytelling at SUNY Oswego, where she is presently a Creative Writing Major.
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"THIS. I became overwhelmed with emotion as I followed the journey of the candlemaker. The music was brilliantly composed, animations were clean, and the writing was simply beautiful. Highly recommend submitting this to wider competition. I look forward to seeing more of this storyteller's work."
— Aunnoy Badruzzaman
Senior Digital Content Producer and artist
featured in Billboard, Pitchfork and SPIN
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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