(a Press 53 Online Publication)
Issue 257, May-August 2024
Welcome to Issue 257 of Prime Number Magazine! In this issue you will find the winners of our free, monthly 53-Word Story Contest for January, February, March and April 2024, plus new poetry selected by Anna Elkins, author of Hope of Stones, winner of the 2021 Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry (Oregon Book Awards), and new short fiction selected by Dennis McFadden, author of Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, winner of the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction, and an introduction of our guest editors for Issue 269, January-April 2025. They are waiting to read your poetry and/or short fiction.
A note for our new readers: Prime Number Magazine has been publishing distinctive poetry and short fiction, beginning with Issue 2 on July 17, 2010 (every issue is a prime number).
We hope you enjoy every word of this issue and that you will share our link with your friends. To begin your reading journey, scroll down and click on the author photos or the links (light blue type). Your escape has arrived!
But first, a quick message
The 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry is now open for entries!
First Prize $1,000 cash advance
Publication & 53 Copies
Deadline: July 31
Get all the information on how to enter
and see our past winners of this award
Winners of our FREE, monthly
53-Word Story Contest
A free, monthly writing competition. Join our email list to get your prompt on the first day of each month.
Write a 53-word story about (prompt)
Send your story by the fifteenth (15th) day of the month to 53wordstory@gmail.com
Guest Editor Selections
Each issue, we ask our guest editors to select their favorite poems or stories from those submitted during our open submission period. Submissions are free and only accepted through Submittable. Here are the guest editors and their selections for Issue 257, May-August 2024.
GUEST EDITOR FOR POETRY
Anna Elkins
Author photo by Howard Romero
Anna Elkins’ debut poetry collection, Hope of Stones, was published in 2020 by Press 53 in their Immersion Series edited by Christopher Forrest. Hope of Stones won the 2021 Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry (Oregon Book Awards), and was judged by Tyree Daye. Anna is a traveling poet and painter. She earned a BA in English and art and an MFA and Fulbright Fellowship in poetry. She has written, painted, and taught on six continents, publishing her writing and exhibiting her art along the way. She has illustrated books by others and authored several books of her own. Anna also teaches classes in the crossroads of art + word + spirit, and one of her greatest joys is encouraging people to discover and delve into their creativity.
Visit Anna’s Press 53 author page and sample a poem from Hope of Stones.
GUEST EDITOR FOR SHORT FICTION
Dennis McFadden
Dennis McFadden, a retired project manager, lives and writes in a cedar-shingled cottage called Summerhill in the woods of upstate New York. His collection Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, won the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. His first collection, Hart’s Grove, was published by Colgate University Press in 2010; another collection, Lafferty, Looking for Love, was longlisted for Regal House Publishing’s 2021 W.S. Porter Prize. His novel, Old Grimes Is Dead, earned a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, and was selected by their editors as one of the Best Indie Books of 2022. Over a hundred of his stories have appeared publications such as The Missouri Review (including the winner of the 2023 Perkoff Prize in fiction), New England Review, The Sewanee Review, The Antioch Review, Arts & Letters, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Best American Mystery Stories, and in the inaugural volume of the new series, The Best Mystery Stories the Year 2021. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he was awarded a Fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in 2018.
prime number
: any integer other than 0 or ± 1 that is not divisible without remainder by any other integers except ± 1 and ± the integer itself (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary)
In literature: poetry and prose that is distinctive and unique (Prime Number Magazine)
Prime Number Magazine is a Press 53 online publication, founded by Clifford Garstang and Kevin Morgan Watson on July 17, 2010, beginning with Issue 2, and continuing with all issues in prime numbers
Meet Our Guest Editors for Issue 269, Jan-Apr 2025
GUEST EDITOR FOR POETRY
Kathleen McGookey’s prose poems and translations have appeared in many journals and anthologies. The author of four books of poetry and three chapbooks, she has also published We’ll See, a book of translations of French poet Georges Godeau’s prose poems. She has received grants from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, the Arts Fund of Kalamazoo County, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her poems have appeared on both Poetry Daily and Verse Daily and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has taught creative writing at Hope College, Interlochen Arts Academy, and Western Michigan University, and lives in Middleville, Michigan, with her family.
Visit Kathleen’s Press 53 autor page to sample a prose poem.
Guest Editor for Short Fiction
Stephanie Carpenter of Hancock, Michigan, is the winner of the 2017 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction for her collection, Missing Persons. A native of northern Michigan, Stephanie holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD in Creative Writing and American Literature from the University of Missouri. Her prose has appeared in Witness, Nimrod, The Cossack Review, Big Fiction, The Crab Orchard Review and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing and literature at Michigan Tech University, in the northernmost reaches of the Upper Peninsula.
Visit Stephanie’s Press 53 author page to sample a story from Missing Persons.