This year, Threshold introduced the first-ever Threshold Award for Excellence in each of our literary categories. We had the distinct honor to work with four talented writers, who selected our final recipients.

Threshold is now pleased to present the work of judges Scott Blackwood, Stephen Markley, and Adam Clay in an on-campus reading. Each judge will be reading excerpts from one of their published works. We will then open it up to the audience for question, advice, and discussion.

Threshold Judge Reading
Thursday, May 12th
5-7 pm
Rosati Room #300
John T. Richardson Library
2350 N. Kenmore Ave.

Scott Blackwood (fiction judge) grew up in Texas and currently teaches in and directs the MFA Creative Writing Program at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His novel, We Agreed to Meet Just Here won the AWP Prize for the Novel, the Texas Institute of Letters for best fiction, and was a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award for fiction. His award-winning collection of stories In the Shadow of Our House was published in 2001. He was recently named a distinguished Writer in Residence at Wichita State University.

Stephen Markley (creative nonfiction judge) is the author of Publish This Book: The Unbelievable True Story of How I Wrote, Sold, and Published This Very Book. He writes a column for Chicago’s RedEye and a blog for the Tribune called “Off the Markley.” His journalism and fiction have appeared in Perceptive Travel, Weber: A Study of the Contemporary West, This Week, the Chicago Reader, Cars.com’s KickingTires, and 10,000 Tons of Black Ink.

Adam Clay (poetry judge) is the author of The Wash. His second book, A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World, is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions. He co-edits Typo Magazine, curates the Poets in Print Reading Series at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, and teaches at Western Michigan University.