Winner of the 2025 Balcones Prize for Fiction
A Thousand Times Before by Asha Thanki
Asha Thanki is an essayist and fiction writer. Asha’s work has appeared in The Southern Review, Platypus Press’ wildness, The Common, Catapult, Hyphen, and more. She is a Kundiman fellow and has received support through scholarships and grants from Sewanee Writers Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Speculative Literature Foundation. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota. A Thousand Times Before is her debut novel.
Finalists:
Yr Dead, by Sam Sax
Code Noir, by Canisia Lubrin
Mother Doll, by Katya Apekina
Winner of the 2025 Balcones Prize for Poetry
Ward Toward by Cindy Juyoung Ok
Cindy Juyoung Ok is the author of Ward Toward and the translator of The Hell of That Star by Kim Hyesoon. A former high school physics teacher, Ok is now an assistant English professor.
Finalists:
Black Bell, by Alison C. Rollins
Thick with Trouble, by Amber McBride
Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms, by Joan Kwon Glass
Winner of the 2025 Balcones Prize for Creative Nonfiction
Pandemonium Logs: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 2020-2022 by Ben Miller
Ben Miller is an essayist, fiction writer, and the creator of hybrid works that combine visuals and text. His first book—River Bend Chronicle (Lookout Books)—was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. His writing has been anthologized in Best American Essays and Best American Experimental Writing, and appeared in a wide variety of journals, including The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, Salmagundi, Raritanand One Story. Miller’s awards include fellowships from the NEA and the Radcliffe Institute, and grants from the South Dakota Arts Council and the Schlesinger Library. His partner is the poet Anne Pierson Wiese.
Finalists:
Pretty, by KB Brookins
My Fighting Family, by Morgan Campbell
The Story Game, Shze-Hui Tjoa
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The 2024 winners of the Balcones Prizes were Gerardo Sámano Córdova for Monstrilio (Fiction) and JJJJJerome Ellis for Aster of Ceremonies (Poetry).
The 2023 winners of the Balcones Prizes were Mecca Jamilah Sullivan for Big Girl (Fiction) and Noʻu Revilla for Ask the Brindled (Poetry).
The 2022 winners of the Balcones Prizes were Jocelyn Nicole Johnson for My Monticello (Fiction) and Michael Kleber-Diggs for Worldly Things (Poetry).
The 2021 winners of the Balcones Prizes were Fowzia Karimi for Above Us the Milky Way (Fiction) and Heid E. Erdrich for Little Big Bully (Poetry).
The 2020 winners of the Balcones Prizes were Max Porter for Lanny (Fiction) and Maya Phillips for Erou (Poetry).
The 2019 winners of the Balcones Prizes were Shena McAuliffe for The Good Echo (Fiction) and Margaree Little for Rest (Poetry).
Previous winners of the Balcones Prizes include Natalie Diaz, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Reginald Gibbons, Mark Jarmon, Michael McGriffe, Douglas Trevor, Tara Laskowski, and many others.