From 1986 through 2010, the Cohen Awards honored the best short story and poem published in the literary journal Ploughshares. The awards were sponsored by longtime Ploughshares patrons Denise and Mel Cohen. Finalists were nominated by staff editors, and the winners were selected by the advisory editors. Each winner received a cash prize of $600. The journal has since replaced the award with the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction.
Past winners
YearPoetryfictionNonfiction1986Tom Sleigh, Hope, Winter 1984Gerald Duff, Fire Ants, Winter 1984Domenic Stansberry, John Gardner: The Return Home, Fall 19841987Al Young, from 22 Moon Poems, Fall 1986Mona Simpson, Lonnie Tishman, Spring 1986Phillip Lopate, Against Joie de Vivre, Spring 19861988Carol Frost, In Scarecrow's Garden, Spring 1987Linda Bamber, The Time-to-Teach-Jane-Eyre-Again Blues, Fall 1987Gerald Shapiro, Evan S. Connell: A Profile, Fall 19861989Dennis Sampson, The Commandment, Winter 1988Josip Novakovich, The Apple, Fall 1988Richard Yates, R.V. Cassill's Clem Anderson, Fall 19881990Patricia Traxler, from The Widow's Words, Winter 1989 Michael Ryan, A Burglary, Spring 1989Christopher Tilghman, In a Father's Place, Fall 1989James Carroll, The Virtue of Writing, Fall 19891991Susan Mitchell, Night Music, Winter 1990-91Carol Roh-Spaulding, Waiting for Mr. Kim, Fall 1990William Kittredge, from Hole in the Sky, Winter 1990-911992Tess Gallagher, from The Valentine Elegies, Spring 1991 Richard McCann, Nights of 1990, Winter 1991-92Eileen Pollack, Neversink, Fall 1991Dan Wakefield, Lion: A Memoir of Mark Van Doren, Fall 19911993Richard Garcia, In the Year 1946, Spring 1992Ron Carlson, Blazo, Spring 1992Debra Spark, The Lure of the West, Spring 19921994Cleopatra Mathis, The Story, Winter 1993-94Fred Leebron, Lovelock, Fall 19931995Mary Ruefle, Glory, Winter 1994-95Marshall N. Klimasewiski, Snowfield, Spring 1994Charles Baxter, Dysfunctional Narratives, Fall 19941996Louise Glück, Penelope's Stubbornness, Winter 1995-96Janet Desaulniers, After Rosa Parks, Winter 1995-961997Campbell McGrath, Praia dos Orixas, Winter 1996-97Andrew Sean Greer, Come Live with Me and Be My Love, Fall 19961998Maxine Swann, Flower Children, Fall 1997Mark Doty, Mercy on Broadway, Spring 19971999Herman Fong, Grandfather's Alphabet, Spring 1998Chris Adrian, The Sum of Our Parts, Winter 1998-992000Jonah Winter, Sestina: Bob, Spring 1999Judith Grossman, How Aliens Think, Spring 19992001Adrian C. Louis, This is the Time of Grasshoppers and All That I See is Dying, Winter 2000Elizabeth Graver, The Mourning Door, Fall 20002002Caroline Finkelstein, Conjecture Number One Thousand, Fall 2001Julie Orringer, Pilgrims, Spring 20012003Scott Withiam, Walk Right In, Spring 2002Joan Silber, The High Road, Fall 20022004Jane Mead, Was Light, Spring 2003Rebecca Soppe, The Pantyhose Man, Winter 2003-042005Daisy Fried, Shooting Kinesha, Spring 2004Xu Xi, Famine, Winter 2004-052006R. T. Smith, Dar He, Spring 2005Laura Kasischke, If a Stranger Approaches You about Carrying a Foreign Object with You onto the Plane . . ., Fall 20052007Victoria Chang, Proof, Spring 2006Joan Wickersham, The Woodwork, Fall 20062008Jennifer Grotz, The Life and Times of George Van Den Heuvel, Winter 2007-08Bret Anthony Johnston, Republican, Fall 20072009Tarfia Faizullah, from Interview with a Birangona, Winter 2008-09Steven Schwartz, Bless Everybody, Fall 20082010Adrian Blevins, The Waning, Winter 2009-10Andria Nacina Cole, Leaving Women, Spring 2009
References
External links Ploughshares Home page