Last Syllable
2026 Finalists
Poetry: Apostasies by Holli Carrell
Fiction: A People Without Shame by Patrick Colm Hogan
Nonfiction: Daughters of Palestine by Leyla K. King
Dr. Holli Carrell, Ph.D. (she/they), is a writer originally from Utah, currently residing in Cincinnati. She is the author of Apostasies, winner of the 2025 Perugia Press Prize for New Women Poets. She holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Cincinnati, where she was awarded a 2024–2025 Taft Research Center Dissertation Fellowship. Her research focuses on U.S. and Anglophone feminist poetics of the late 19th to 21st centuries, documentary poetics, eco-poetics, queer theory, and Mormon studies. She additionally holds an M.F.A. from Hunter College and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Utah.
Patrick Colm Hogan is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut specializing in cognitive approaches to literary and critical theory as well as postcolonial and world literature and nonwestern theory. Recent publications include Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists and The Mind and Its Stories: Narrative Universals and Human Emotion. He is editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences.
Leyla K. King is a Palestinian American Episcopal priest and writer. She is a founding member of Palestinian Anglicans and Clergy Allies (Palestiniananglicans.org) and The Small Churches Big Impact Collective (smallchurchesbigimpact.org). Currently, she serves as the Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. King is the author of Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations.
Poetry Winner
Fiction Winner
Nonfiction Winner
Last Syllable
2026 Finalists
Poetry: Apostasies by Holli Carrell
Fiction: A People Without Shame by Patrick Colm Hogan
Nonfiction: Daughters of Palestine by Leyla K. King
Dr. Holli Carrell, Ph.D. (she/they), is a writer originally from Utah, currently residing in Cincinnati. She is the author of Apostasies, winner of the 2025 Perugia Press Prize for New Women Poets. She holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Cincinnati, where she was awarded a 2024–2025 Taft Research Center Dissertation Fellowship. Her research focuses on U.S. and Anglophone feminist poetics of the late 19th to 21st centuries, documentary poetics, eco-poetics, queer theory, and Mormon studies. She additionally holds an M.F.A. from Hunter College and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Utah.
Patrick Colm Hogan is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut specializing in cognitive approaches to literary and critical theory as well as postcolonial and world literature and nonwestern theory. Recent publications include Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists and The Mind and Its Stories: Narrative Universals and Human Emotion. He is editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences.
Leyla K. King is a Palestinian American Episcopal priest and writer. She is a founding member of Palestinian Anglicans and Clergy Allies (Palestiniananglicans.org) and The Small Churches Big Impact Collective (smallchurchesbigimpact.org). Currently, she serves as the Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. King is the author of Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations.
Poetry Winner
Fiction Winner
Nonfiction Winner
Last Syllable
Book Awards
Starting Fall of 2025, Last Syllable will be holding a post-publication book award contest.
Three awards will be given annually in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Prize will include: $1000, travel expenses (transportation, lodging, food) up to an additional $1000, and a headlining feature in the PLNU M.A. in Writing program’s Visiting Writers Series
Entry fee: $25
Postmark deadline: September 1, 2025
Full-length books and chapbooks published in 2023-2025 may be submitted by the author, publisher, or agent. Mixed genre and hybrid books may be submitted in either category.
Entering the title indicates the author’s willingness to give a workshop and reading as part of the PLNU M.A. in Writing program’s Visiting Writers Series in Fall 2026. Agents and publishers who submit on behalf of the author should confirm the author’s willingness to participate in the Visiting Writers Series if chosen for the award.
All work must be submitted in English. Bilingual books that include English are welcome. Self-published books are welcome. Anthologies are not eligible.
Collaborations are welcome; authors will split the prize money and travel expenses.
Please include a cover sheet with the following information:
Book title, publication date, and genre
Author’s name, address, phone number, and email address
Publisher and contact info
Submitter’s name and contact info (if not the author)
Send a copy of the book, along with a check for $25 (make checks payable to Point Loma Nazarene University with “Last Syllable” in the memo line):
Last Syllable Book Awards
c/o Dr. Katie Manning
3900 Lomaland Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
To pay via credit card instead of check, please click here
