Our Nominations for the 2026 Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is one of the most honoured literary projects in America. They welcome up to six nominations (print or online) from little magazines and small book press editors throughout the world, and selected winners will appear in their annual publication. (Learn more about it here)
We are very pleased to be nominating six different pieces from our 2025 library.
Renee Cronley for The Golden Child
Spencer Gorham for Spare a Trillion Dollars
Jill Nash for Corinna, Entangled
Ross Peacock for Apple Wars
Jack Stilborn for My Secret Life as a Car
Ronald Zajac for Finding Banksy
Congratulations to all our nominees! Decisions are in the hands of the Pushcart team. Good luck to everyone!
Renee Cronley is a writer from Manitoba that stepped away from nursing to prioritize her children, and has been channelling her knowledge and experiences into a poetry book about nursing burnout. Renee can be found at www.reneecronley.com
Spencer Gorham (they/them), born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, is a musician and poet. In the past they have digitally released over a dozen records of ambient and experimental music under the artist name, Ghastly Crucifix. Currently, they are recording music under the name Butch Heartgirl, a moniker that reflects their heart-on-their-sleeve outlook on life. Their transgender identity influences, and colours much of their work, as well as their love of cinema and music. They have directed and edited several music videos for their songs as Ghastly Crucifix. This was their first time being published for their poetry. They reside in Montréal, Québec with people they love.
Jill Nash is an emerging queer writer and a student of libraries. She grew up roaming the river trails of London, Ontario and currently resides in Toronto. She has a love of history, mythology, and discovering old buildings. When not reading or writing, they can be found cross-stitching, baking, or exploring.
Ross Peacock lives beside a lake in Haliburton, Ontario, where he volunteers with the Red Cross and is active with the Haliburton Arts Council. He is a graduate of the Seneca College technical writing program and taught both marketing and business communications at Georgian College. He has self-published three novels and two short story collections, including the recently released Wormfood Chronicles.
Jack Stilborn showed early promise with a comic story that made a cousin laugh so hard she threw up. He was then deflected by life. Careers included part-time academic (political science); intergovernmental affairs advisor (Ontario government), and research analyst (Parliament). Outside work, he has raised three children with spouse Linda and enjoys eclectic reading, volunteer work, cycling, kayaking (no white water please) and cross-country skiing. Following a period of writing about parliamentary government, he returned to fiction with a short story that received Honourable Mention in the 2024 Alice Munro Short Story Contest. His debut novel, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, released through Chicken House Press in the fall of 2025. Visit Jack’s website at jackstilborn.com
Ronald Zajac was born and raised in Montreal, where he completed a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature at McGill University. His work has previously been published in Matrix. He is a journalist at a daily newspaper in Brockville, Ontario; working the community desk reveals that, while the devil is in the details, God is in the stories they reveal. He is currently working on a novel and a short story cycle. He enjoys spending time with his family, posting nature shots on Instagram, and listening to classical music, an addiction he treats with healthy doses of jazz.
