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.
R. Kumra, Naa Asheley Ashitey, AJ Bergmann, Anne Barngrover, Brittney Corrigan, Justin Courter, Darren Demaree, Charles Livesay, Meg Lubey Eloise Schultz, Rachele Salvini, Barbara Lawhorn, Ariel Berry, Stephen Bush, Bruce Crown, Rachel Cascella, Julia Li.
SUBNIVEAN AWARDS
2025-2026 WINNERS
POETRY
R.
KUMRA
“In these poems a compact’s mirror distorts the speaker’s face like “Escher’s sphere”; then water is “tea-dark” and then “dimple[d]” by mouths “nibbling at light / like a trail of bread”; and finally, paper is something to “believe in.” One can’t help but believe in these poems, gladly, completely. These poems are full of gorgeous imagery and glorious music—and crucially, literary technique is always in service of the heart, one deeply attuned to that which usually goes unnoticed, unpoemed. In other words, the “sweetness [that’s] a kind of evidence / nobody bothered to collect.” I thank this poet for bothering, for collecting such sweetness and surprise, all this tenderness.”
— Chen Chen, Final Judge in Poetry
FICTION
RACHELE
SALVINI
“'Bottom Dwellers' moves deftly between tenderness and menace, between the intimacy of first love and the slow recognition of danger. From its opening—“On the night of my first baseball game ever, Garrett told me he heard voices”—it establishes a voice that is clear-eyed, wry, and quietly self-protective, even as the narrator is pulled into Garrett’s orbit.
The writing is richly textured, grounded in a rural physical world—catfish, red clay, gas stations—while also carrying a strong emotional undercurrent, remniscent of the stories of Breece d'j Pancake. The metaphor of the “bottom dweller” is especially well-handled, accruing meaning across the story until it becomes a lens for understanding character, inheritance, and environment. The details linger, and the ending resists easy resolution, allowing love and harm to coexist in a way that feels both unsettling and true.
”
— Megan Mayhew Bergman, Final Judge in Fiction
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:
-
Lucas Anzalone, from Oswego, NY
-
Paige Blair, from Cazenovia, NY
-
Makaylia Cuyler, from Oswego, NY
-
Gabriella Warner, from Oswego, NY
-
Millie Wu, from Skeneateles, NY
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—"
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.
"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!"
— 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?
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:
-
Madeline Rosales
-
Michael Loyd Gray
-
B. Fulton Jennes
-
Neha Rayamajhi
-
Sara Burnett
-
Jaime Gill
Learn more about the event
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."
— 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!
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.