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Spotlight on Steven T. Moore

Author Steven T. Moore sits in front of a bookshelf. He wears an open-collared shirt and tan sport coat. His smile is radiant. His skin is the color of milk chocolate. His head is clean-shaven.

It’s that time of year when authors are stirring around doing things, and Madville’s authors are no exception. We heard, this week, from Steven T. Moore about his book signing events, and he sent photos.

Steven reports that, “I sold out at the Martha’s Vineyard event and again at The Grace Museum in Abilene. (see attached photos). Arlene from Seven and One Books has been incredible, showing up to these events and selling books.”

Meet Steven T. Moore and several other Madville authors at the TACW conference.

This bit of info belongs on this Steven T. Moore post because Steven is the president of the organization this year, and we’re so happy to have him! TACW is the Texas Association of Creative Writers, and this year the gathering will be held on the campus of Tarleton State University. You can read all about it here: https://www.tacwtgroup.com/conference. Also in attendance and presenting at this conference will be several other Madville authors including: Daniel Mendoza, author of Drum the Double Sun–Algoems, he’s VP of TACW this year; Kimberly Davis, director of Madville Publishing, she’ll be reading from her own book, Trust Issues, not a Madville title; Earl S. Braggs, who will be conducting a masterclass and reading from his 2021 poetry collection, Obama’s Children, as well as his upcoming short story collection, Morning Edge of Midnight (which includes the novella, After Allyson); Goutham Rao, author of the 2025 novel, Electric Dreams; and Bruce Overby, reading from his novel The Cyclone Release.

The Horizon Never Forgets: Poems by Steven T. Moore. Bright yellow painging with a lot of texture shows a desolate road tith leaning power poles the only things in sight apart from the road which looks like it may be swallowed by sand.

Madville published Steven T. Moore’s poetry collection, The Horizon Never Forgets this spring, 2025.

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2024 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize Winners

shallow focus yellow daisies

Art Smith Poetry Prize 2024

We are running slightly behind schedule with this, but we are thrilled to announce that we have a winner of the Arthur Smith Poetry Prize for 2024! With 110 total submissions, and only three people reading, it took us a little while. The work was all so very good.

The Winners

Animal Psalm – THE WINNER
by DeAnna Stephens


Stephens’s work has appeared in numerous journals including Cherry Tree, Feminist Studies, and Louisiana Literature and has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Additionally, her work has received the George Scarbrough Prize for Poetry (Mountain Heritage Literary Festival), the Sue Ellen Hudson Excellence in Writing Award from Tennessee Mountain Writers, the Tusculum Review Poetry Prize, and the Tennessee Williams Festival Poetry Prize. She is the author of a chapbook, Heliotaxis, (Main Street Rag), and was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame in 2022. She currently serves as a reader for Rowayat and teaches writing, reading, and literature at Roane State Community College in Crossville, Tennessee.

No Lace Fronts in Iowa City – FIRST RUNNER UP
by Meghan Malachi

Meghan B. Malachi is a Bronx-born, Chicago-based poet and educator. She is an Associate Editor at RHINO and the Programming Coordinator at the Guild Literary Complex. Meghan is the first-place winner of the Spoon River Poetry Review 2022 Editor’s Prize Contest and a 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee. She has also been a finalist for the 2024 Hillary Tham Capital Collection as well as the 2024 Lois Cranston Memorial Prize. Her work is published in Milly Magazine, Rabid Oak, Juked, NECTAR Poetry, Writers with Attitude, and NewCity. Her first chapbook, The Autodidact, was published by Ethel Zine & Micro Press in 2020. She teaches rhetoric and writing at Harold Washington College and Saint Xavier University.

The Rest of the Shortlist

  • Meuse is So Close to Muse by Elinor Ann Walker
  • On Men by Esperanza Cintrón
  • Sometimes I Forget How to Be a Person by Peter Grandbois
  • Titanfall by Noah Soltau

The Longlist

  • Animal Psalm by DeAnna Stephens
  • Causa Sui by Elizabeth Knapp
  • Meuse is So Close to Muse by Elinor Ann Walker
  • No Lace Fronts in Iowa City by Meghan Malachi
  • Notes on Endings by Clare Banks
  • On Men by Esperanza Cintrón
  • Sometimes I Forget How to Be a Person by Peter Grandbois
  • The 574 Calling Area’s Been Hit By the Blast by David Dodd Lee
  • Titanfall by Noah Soltau
  • What the Light Was Like by Sara Dudo

Our 2024 Judges

The winning poet receives a $1,000 advance, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book. Finalists will also be considered for future publication.

Judge: Allison Joseph
Readers: Edison Jennings and Shlagha Borah

Read about previous Arthur Smith Poetry Prize winners
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AWP25 Recap

Michael Gills with students from the University of Utah Honors college at Madville Publishing's booth for AWP25

Once again, we have Luanne Smith to thank for sponsoring our trip to the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference. As always we saw so very many friends–authors and editors with whom we have worked. Authors with whom we hope someday to work. Experts in the field with good advice, and talented new poets and writers. It didn’t seem as crowded as in years past, and there was clearly concern behind the cheery smiles and pats on the back. It’s a tough time to be trying to sell spots in creative programs. And it’s a tough time to try and make a living in publishing. We especially enjoyed connecting with fellow Texas publishers. Here are a bunch of photos. I’ll put them here and try to add the names!!!

And we missed pictures somewhere… Those who took photos with us, please share!

Michael Gills, Gabe, Jonah, Lee Zacharias, Bill Davis at the Madville booth at AWP25
Kim Davis, Michael Gills, Gabriel and Jonah, two students from Gills' honors class where students write a novel in a year.
Madville Publishing's booth for AWP25. A colorful backdrop displays the Madville Logo in white over a reproduction of a Bob Boze Bell image used for the cover of Santa Fe Trail: Chasing the Big West.
Kim Davis and Cat Smith complete setup at the booth for AWP25. Honkeytonk Sue, art by Bob Boze Bell stands between them.
Sign announcing 2025 AWP Conference and Bookfair. It was in the upstairs lobby of the AC Hotel--which shared some features with The Moxy.
The Los Angeles skyline seen from the 27th floor of the Moxy downtown. Lots of tall buildings and glass. Abstract image taken during AWP25.
Los Angeles traffic at night.
Bill and Kim Davis in the lobby of the Moxy Hotel
Fiew of LA traffic taken from 27th floor of the Moxy downtown LA during AWP25
Kim Davis and Michael Gaspeny at AWP25
This is an incomplete photo gallery from Madville Publishing’s AWP25 experience. There were several other authors we know we photographed… We need to connect with a couple of others who took photos. Bruce Overby? Patricia Clark? Lee Zacharias already sent hers…

We had many favorable comments about our new backdrop, and we have to admit that we got it from VistaPrint. They do amazing things quickly and inexpensively. I mention it here because some of our friends asked.

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Madville’s 2025 Pushcart Prize Nominations

Screen capture from the Pushcart Press Website. It shows the logo of a man pushing a cart and has a block of text about the press. http://www.pushcartprize.com/index.html

The 2025 Pushcart Prize

Madville has made our nominations for the 2025 Pushcart Prize. The prize will be awarded in several categories for short pieces. It was a hard decision, because we published such amazing work this year. The Pushcart Prize accepts six nominations per small press or magazine and “any combination of poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs or stand-alone excerpts from novels.”

Our editors weighed in on their favorites, and this is what we chose:

“James and Jim Ponder Enough” by Jim Minick from his poetry collection The Intimacy of Spoons (Madville 2024).

“Sorry” by Laura Last from the anthology, Fantastic Imaginary Creatures, edited by Gerry LaFemina (Madville 2024).

“Neighbors Helping Neighbors” by Julie Liddell Whitehead from her linked story collection, Hurricane Baby (Madville 2024).

“Shelley and the Slipping Away” by A. Rooney from the linked story collection, The Lesser Madonnas (Madville 2024).

“The children turn themselves into ICE” by linda ravenswood from her poetry collection, a poem is a house (Madville 2024).

“Bird Call Koan with Glossary” by Yiskah Rosenfeld from her poetry collection, Tasting Flight (Madville 2024).