AUSTIN, Tex., May 31, 2024 – Torch Literary Arts is thrilled to announce that Yael Valencia Aldana has been awarded the Pushcart Prize for “Black Person Head Bob” published June 9, 2023, as a Torch Friday Feature! Her poem will be published in Pushcart Prize XLIX, the 49th edition.

Yael Valencia Aldana is a Caribbean Afro-Latinx writer and poet. She is a descendant of the indigenous people of modern-day Colombia. Her work has appeared or is upcoming in Typehouse, South Florida Poetry Journal, Cutbank Journal, and Slag Glass City, among others. She teaches creative writing in South Florida, where she lives with her son and too many pets. You can visit her website and follow her on Instagram and Twitter. 

This is the second year that a Torch Feature has received a Pushcart Prize. Torch considers all accepted features for external award nominations. We accept submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and script (plays and screenplays) by Black women writers on a rolling basis. You can learn more about our submission guidelines here.

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About Torch Literary Arts

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established with love and intention in 2006 to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, workshops, an annual retreat, and special events. 

Help Torch continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today.

About The Pushcart Prize

The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America - including Highest Honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since 1976, hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in our annual collections. Each year most of the writers and many of the presses are new to the series. Every volume contains an index of past selections, plus lists of outstanding presses with addresses.

Media Contact Information:

Brittany Heckard

Communications Associate

bheckard@torchliteraryarts.org 

(512) 641-9251