Week 25 Recap: Discontent Works Over the Competition
Discontent
took a commanding lead last week and did not take a day off until the job was done.
A performance review suggested that voters appreciated its double-take first impression, meticulous attention to detail, and perfection depiction of dignity crushed by the corporate machine.
Week 25 Winner: Discontent by Beatriz Serrano, translated by Mara Faye Lethem
Congrats to Beatriz Serrano, translator Mara Faye Lethem, and the Vintage team!
Week 26: Skeletomes
From bone to blossom, from flesh to form, these covers exhume the body’s architecture, where anatomy tells the story and paper breathes like skin.
- The Body Remembers by Maureen Sherbondy (Unsolicited Press, Oct 14, 2025): A lyrical meditation on the body as strength, mystic, beauty, and grief.
- this abattoir is a college by Orchid Tierney (Calamari Press, Jul 1, 2025): A genre-bending critique of academia’s meat-grinder machinery, where the classroom burns and poetry rebuilds what’s left.
- Splice by Anthony Borruso (Trio House Press, Jul 1, 2025): A vivid, shape-shifting collection where illness, pop culture, and identity collide in darkly humorous montage.
- The Death and Life of August Sweeney by Samuel Ashworth (Santa Fe Writer’s Project, Mar 20, 2025): A legendary chef dies mid-service and still refuses to quit stirring the pot.
Week 26 Lineup
Voting is open now through Sunday at 10pm ET.
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