New York, NY (June 26, 2025)—The Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), the national nonprofit organization that for 58 years has supported the work of independent literary publishers, has announced the winners of its eleventh annual FIRECRACKER AWARDS, given for the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry and the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence. Each winner in the book categories receives $2,000—$1,000 for the press and $1,000 for the author—and each winner in the magazine categories receives $1,000. The winners were announced during a virtual ceremony held on June 26, 2025.
2025 Firecracker Awards Winners
FICTION: Obligations to the Wounded by Mubanga Kalimamukwento, published by University of Pittsburgh Press
From the Judges:
“Seldom does fiction so expertly capture the complications of queerness, family, dislocation, and culture. Obligations to the Wounded is a triumphant collection of unforgettable tales whose characters are as varied in identity as they are in experienced circumstances. With wit and cunning, the protagonists navigate the ever-present systems of oppression that encircle them and their relationships. Mubanga Kalimamukwento has written a stunning work of compassionate art worthy of our attention and emotions.”
Mubanga Kalimamukwento is the author of Obligations to the Wounded: Stories (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024). Kalimamukwento’s other books include The Shipikisha Club: A Novel (forthcoming from Dzanc Books, 2026), Another Mother Does Not Come When Yours Dies: Poems (Wayfarer Books, 2025), unmarked graves (Tusculum University Press, 2022), and The Mourning Bird (Jacana, 2019). Her creative work has also appeared in adda, Aster(ix), Isele Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Kweli, Overland, on Netflix, and elsewhere. Kalimamukwento founded Ubwali Literary Magazine, co-founded the Idembeka Creative Writing Workshop, and serves as a mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.
The University of Pittsburgh Press, founded in 1936, publishes books in a wide range of scholarly and literary fields, including the Pitt Poetry Series, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and, in rotation with other university presses, the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. The press sponsors the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, which recognizes one collection of short fiction each year.
CREATIVE NONFICTION: Low: Notes on Art & Trash by Jaydra Johnson, published by Fonograf Editions
From the Judges:
“Jaydra Johnson’s Low is formally inventive, bringing together art criticism and memoir, words and art into a meticulously crafted essay collection. In stunningly lyrical prose, Johnson pays a finely hewn attention to that which our wasteful, capitalistic society discards and collapses the dichotomies of high and low art. Johnson writes with a tenderness towards her subjects, but without sacrificing a direct, unflinching approach to her insights on class and waste. This book, as the interstitial pieces remind us, give us new rituals for looking, exposing the casually oppressive structures of our society and imbuing trash with a newfound sense of purpose. Fonograf Editions has produced a gorgeous book to match with gorgeously formatted pages, and collaged interstitials that underscore the meaning and message of Johnson’s playful, powerful work.”
Jaydra Johnson is the author of Low: Notes on Art and Trash (Fonograf Editions, 2024), which was chosen by Maggie Nelson as the winner of the Fonograf Editions essay collection contest. Johnson is a writer, visual artist, and educator whose work has appeared in Oxford American, Epoch Review, Guernica, and Sedition magazines, among others. She currently writes the Cliff Notes column for Variable West.
Fonograf Editions, founded in 2016 and based in Portland, Oregon, is a nonprofit independent record label and publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The press values the interdisciplinary, experimental, and unclassifiable and strives to bring to life works that resist, bend, and break expectations.
POETRY: Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi, published by Wave Books
From the Judges:
“Don Mee Choi’s Mirror Nation is a virtuosic work exploring memory, loss, and grief inside the system of capitalist nation-states. Choi rearranges and expands language(s), numbers, signs, still and archival images in a project so singular that it expands the definition of poetry itself as it charts a poignant journey of meaning-making in the aftermath of empires’ repeated cycles of violence. Mirror Nation offers the best of what poetry can provide—a new way of seeing. Once you have read it, it will live in you and with you for the foreseeable future. Arriving at a crossroads in the American colonial project, this collection is both testament and testimony to the corrosive forces of empire.”
Don Mee Choi is the author of Mirror Nation (Wave Books, 2024). Choi’s other books include the National Book Award-winning collection DMZ Colony (Wave Books, 2020), Hardly War (Wave Books, 2016), The Morning News Is Exciting (Action Books, 2010), and several pamphlets of poems and essays. She is a recipient of fellowships from the MacArthur, Guggenheim, Lannan, and Whiting Foundations, as well as the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. She has translated several collections of Kim Hyesoon’s poetry, including Autobiography of Death (New Directions, 2018), which received the International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Wave Books, founded in 2005 and based in Seattle, Washington, is an independent poetry press dedicated to publishing exceptional contemporary poetry, poetry in translation, and writing by poets. Wave Books challenges the values and practices of readers and adds to the collective sense of what is possible in contemporary poetry.
MAGAZINES/BEST DEBUT: Revel
From the Judges:
“Coming to us from Atlanta, Revel dashes out of the gates as an assured, groundbreaking, and dynamic literary magazine. Publishing outstanding work in a range of poetic and prose styles from some of today’s most noteworthy luminaries and promising emerging writers, Revel prioritizes work that is sharp, clear, and urgent. Its elegant design further elevates the pleasure of reading a journal that should have a long and impactful trajectory.”
Revel, founded in 2024, is a biannual magazine published by Unbound Edition Press, and features new poetry, fiction, literary essays, criticism, and art. The magazine shares with its publisher the mission to respect and elevate emerging, underappreciated, and marginalized authors, with a strong commitment to advancing LGBTQ+ and BIPOC voices.
MAGAZINES/GENERAL EXCELLENCE: Circumference
From the Judges:
“Circumference is a thrilling reminder of how the reader is ultimately a citizen of the republic of arts and letters, an enduring place that encompasses the globe and welcomes every person. The representation of different languages in the table of contents alone hints at the beautiful conversation nurtured in its pages, as the journal introduces the hungry reader to compelling voices from an array of cultures and nations that they otherwise may have never known about. In its majestic offerings of poetry and prose, we find perspectives that inspire, challenge, and push the boundaries of what literature can be. At a time when finding commonalities among differences feels more important than ever, Circumference is indispensable.”
Circumference, founded in 2020, is a biannual journal of poetry, translation and international culture. Circumference publishes new translations of poetry, drama, and essays, particularly—but not exclusively—from contemporary authors in the belief that translation is a vital part of public and artistic discourse.
This year’s Firecracker Awards judges were, in fiction: Luis Alberto Correa, general manager at White Whale Bookstore; Juliana Lamy, author of You Were Watching from the Sand, published by Red Hen Press; Alejandro Varela, author of The Town of Babylon, published by Astra House; in creative nonfiction: Sean Enfield, author of Holy American Burnout!, published by Split/Lip Press; Rosa Hernandez, marketing manager at Third Place Books; Alejandra Oliva, author of Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration, published by Astra House; in poetry: Rob Arnold, executive director of Poets House; Truong Tran, author of book of the other: small in comparison, published by Kaya Press; Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, author of Kaan & Her Sisters, published by Trio House Press; in magazines: Amy Brady, former executive director and publisher of Orion Magazine; Alexandra Watson, executive editor of Apogee Journal; Oscar Villalon, editor of ZYZZYVA.
ABOUT CLMP
CLMP ensures a vibrant, diverse literary landscape by helping mission-driven independent literary magazines and presses thrive. Since 1967, CLMP has provided publishers with funding and technical assistance; facilitated peer-to-peer learning and group action; served as a dependable, essential hub for best practices, resources, and nurturing community support; and connected publishers with other groups of literary stakeholders, including readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, educators, presenting organizations, and funders. Along with directly serving 1,000+ publishers located in almost every state in the country, CLMP administers the Lit Mag Adoption program, which provides educators and students with discounted magazine subscriptions; the $10,000 Constellation Award, given to honor an independent literary press that is led by and/or champions the writing of people of color for excellence in publishing; and the Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature, which celebrate magazines and books that make a significant contribution to our literary culture, among other programs.
