| Awarded For: | Literary excellence |
| Sponsor: | Community of Literary Magazines and Presses |
| Reward: | $1,000–$2,000 |
| Date: | June |
| Year: | Original version: 1996–2002; new version: 2015 (2014 publications) |
| Year2: | Active |
The Firecracker Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards focusing on small-press publishing. Previously known as the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards (FABs), in the current form they are known as the CLMP Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature, and are administered by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).
The Firecracker Alternative Book Awards were established in 1996 and were presented through 2002. The Firecracker Awards returned in 2015, "to celebrate books and magazines that make a significant contribution to our literary culture and the publishers that strive to introduce important voices to readers far and wide."[1]
Neither version of the Firecracker books awards are related to an identically named award given to "women photographers born or working in Europe."[2]
CLMP Firecracker Awards are given to one winner annually in each of five categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Best Debut in Magazine, and General Excellence in Magazine. A shortlist of nominees in each category is announced beforehand.[3] (There have previously been other categories but they have been retired or subsumed in the existing five.)
According to a 2014 Publishers Weekly article, the awards are "judged by a panel of writers, editors, booksellers, and agents. Members of the Firecracker Committee include representatives from, in addition to CLMP and the ABA, Tin House, Workman Publishing, Random House, Byliner, Greenlight Books, and a host of literary agents...."
In the book categories, winning presses receive $1,000-2,000, and authors or translators receive $1,000. Magazine winners receive $1,000 each. The winning titles are also showcased in CLMP's national publicity campaigns.[4]
Generally, the Firecrackers are announced each June. Each ceremony includes the naming of that year's recipient of the Lord Nose Award, "given in recognition of a lifetime of superlative work in literary publishing."[5]
The Firecracker Alternative Book Awards were established in 1996 by John Davis of Koen Book Distribution,[6] with support from Publishers Group West, Publishers Weekly, and Tower Books & Records. The FABs were designed to bring attention to "the best in alternative printing" by honoring books on the "'unmapped edges of contemporary culture' that 'sharpen the cutting edge.'" Categories included Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Politics, Sex, Music, Graphic Novel, Zine, Kids, Art/Photo, Drugs, and Special Recognition/Wildcard. Winners "were selected via an online voting system."
The FABs were administered by volunteers rather than an official organization, and after 2002 the task became "unsustainable." CLMP was approached at that time about continuing the awards, but the organization passed on the opportunity for a couple of reasons, one being that the voting system "bore a lack of transparency that raised concerns," and the other being that CLMP felt it needed to gain more solid financial footing before it took on administering a set of literary awards.
The revitalized CLMP Firecracker Awards returned in 2015,[7] "broadening the focus from strictly unorthodox works."
| 1996 | Fiction | A Void | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonfiction | Carl Jensen and Project Censored | Censored: The News that Didn't Make the News — and Why | |
| Poetry | S. E. Anderson and Tony Medina | In Defense of Mumia | |
| Politics | Race for Justice: Mumia Abu-Jamal's Fight Against the Death Penalty | ||
| Graphic Novel | &, eds. | The Narrative Corpse | |
| Music | Get in the Van On the Road with Black Flag | ||
| Drugs | Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft | ||
| Sex | Breathless: Erotica | ||
| Special Recognition/Wildcard | David Robinson | Saving Graces | |
| Pirate Utopias | |||
| 1997 | Fiction | Distorture | |
| Nonfiction | Transgender Warriors | ||
| Poetry | Home in Three Days. Don't Wash. | ||
| Politics | Peter Phillips | Censored 1997: The News That Didn't Make the News: The Year's Top 25 Censored News Stories | |
| Graphic Novel | Real Americans Admit: "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done" | ||
| Art/Photo | &, eds. | Nothing but the Girl: the Blatant Lesbian Image: A Portfolio and Exploration of Lesbian Erotic Photography | |
| Sex | Paul Joannides with (illus.) | The Guide to Getting it On | |
| Drugs | Everything I Know I Learned on Acid | (editor) | |
| Music | I Need More | ||
| 'Zine | Celina Hex and Betty Boob, editors/publishers | Bust | |
| Kids | , editor | The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children | |
| Outstanding Independent Press of the Year | AK Press | ||
| Cleis Press | |||
| Incommunicado | |||
| Special Recognition/Wildcard: This Ain't Yer Family's Photo Album | and | Death Scenes | |
| Special Recognition/Wildcard: Don't Cook With Your Mouth Full | and | InterCourses An Aphrodisiac Cookbook | |
| Recall Hoekstra Award for Special Merit in Literary Publishing | FC2/Black Ice Books | ||
| 1998 | Fiction | In Awe | |
| Nonfiction | Ono Ono Girl's Hula | ||
| Poetry | Gerry Gomez Pearlberg | Queer Dog: Homo/Pup/Poetry | |
| Politics | The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy | ||
| Graphic Novel | Minimum Wage Book 2: Tales of Hoffman[8] | ||
| Kids | In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers | ||
| Music | Monk | ||
| Drugs | Bobcat Press | The Joint Rolling Handbook | |
| Sex | The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women | ||
| Special Recognition/Wildcard | Red Meat A Collection of Red Meat Cartoons From the Secret Files of Max Cannon | ||
| , contributor | Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman | ||
| NASA/Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America | |||
| 1999 | Fiction | The Leather Daddy and the Femme | |
| Nonfiction | |||
| Poetry | Burning In Paradise[9] | ||
| Politics | Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion | ||
| Graphic Novel | Street Posters and Ballads: A Selection of Songs, Poems, and Graphics | ||
| Music | and | Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground | |
| Sex | Maurice Vellekoop's ABC Book: A Homoerotic Primer | ||
| Drugs | Steven Cerio's ABC Book: A Drug Primer | ||
| Art/Photo | The Beauty of Fetish | ||
| Zine | Teresa Cooper and Lisa Zale, publishers | The Fish Tank | |
| Kids | and | Facetasm: A Creepy Mix & Match Book of Gross Face Mutations | |
| Outstanding Independent Press of the Year | Cleis Press | ||
| Self Improvement | with, illustrator | My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely | |
| Special Recognition/Wildcard: Maybe Mr. Falwell Was Right | , editor | Teletubbies Dancing with the Skirt | |
| Special Recognition/Wildcard: Maybe the NEA Was Wrong | , Anne Bar Din (translator), Domitilia Dominguez (illustrator) | The Story of Colors/La Historia de los Colores: A Bilingual Folktale from the Jungles of Chiapas | |
| 2000 | Fiction | Po Man's Child | |
| Nonfiction | and, interviewer | The Future of History | |
| Poetry | and, eds. | The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry | |
| Politics | No More Prisons | ||
| Graphic Novel | My New York Diary | ||
| Kids | and Anne Bar Din, translator | The Story of Colors/La Historia de los Colores: A Bilingual Folktale from the Jungles of Chiapas | |
| Sex | I Was a Teenage Dominatrix | ||
| Drugs | , compiler | High Times Presents Paul Krassner's Pot Stories for the Soul | |
| Music | Bryan Ray Turcotte and Christopher T. Miller, eds. | Fucked Up + Photocopied: Instant Art of the Punk Rock Movement | |
| Art/Photo | From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines | ||
| Special Recognition/Wildcard: Books about Gap-Toothed Deceased Female Cartoonists with Smelly Dogs | Dori Stories | ||
| Special Recognition/Wildcard: Best Propaganda Video Guide | Mental Hygiene Classroom Films 1945-1970 | ||
| 2001 | Fiction | The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature | |
| Nonfiction | The Strange Case of Edward Gorey | ||
| Poetry | Shappy & | Little Book of Ass | |
| Politics | Ralph Nader | The Ralph Nader Reader | |
| Graphic Novel | Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth | ||
| Sex | Katharine Gates | Deviant Desires | |
| Drugs | Mary Jane | Aunt Mary Jane's Baking With Pot | |
| Music | Strange Fruit | ||
| Art/Photo | Gina Garan | This Is Blythe | |
| Kids | Mindy Morgenstern | The Real Rules for Girls | |
| Special Recognition — Spoken Word | Why Things Burn | ||
| 2002 | Fiction | This Too Can Be Yours | |
| Nonfiction | Fast Food Nation The Dark Side of the All-American Meal | ||
| Poetry | Cunt-Ups | ||
| Politics | 9-11 | ||
| Graphic Novel | Palestine | ||
| Art/Photo | Devil's Advocate: The Art of Coop | ||
| Kids | &, eds. | Little Lit Strange Stories for Strange Kids | |
| Music | We Owe You Nothing | ||
| Drugs | Junkie Love | ||
| Sex | with Gabrielle H. Cody | Hardcore from the Heart: The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance |
| 2015 | Fiction | Song of the Shank | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creative Nonfiction | Self-Portrait in Green | ||
| Poetry | Sonnets: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition | ||
| Graphic Novel | and Kerascoët | Beauty (Beauté) | |
| Young Adult | Some Boys | ||
| Magazines/For Poetry | Poetry | ||
| Magazines/Best Debut | Story | ||
| Magazines/General Excellence | Tin House | ||
| 2016[10] | Fiction | The Things We Don't Do | |
| Creative Nonfiction | The World is On Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs of Apocalypse | ||
| Poetry | Garments Against Women | ||
| Literary Magazine | A Public Space | ||
| 2017 | Fiction | with Jeffrey Zuckerman (trans.) | Eve Out of Her Ruins |
| Creative Nonfiction | Calamities | ||
| Poetry | Buck Studies | ||
| Magazines: Best Debut | Bennington Review | ||
| Magazine: General Excellence | Prairie Schooner | ||
| 2018 | Fiction | An Unkindness of Ghosts | |
| Creative Nonfiction | Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit | ||
| Poetry | Unaccompanied | ||
| Magazines: Best Debut | Flock Literary Journal | ||
| Magazines: General Excellence: | One Story | ||
| 2019 | Fiction | Little Fish | |
| Creative Nonfiction | The Leftovers | ||
| Poetry | City of the Future | ||
| Magazines: Best Debut | Aster(ix) | ||
| Magazines: General Excellence | ZYZZYVA | ||
| 2020[11] | Fiction | with Saskia Vogel (trans.) | They Will Drown in their Mothers' Tears |
| Creative Nonfiction | throughsmoke | ||
| Poetry | Motion Studies | ||
| Personal Volcano | |||
| Magazines/Best Debut | Porter House Review | ||
| Magazines/General Excellence | Two Lines Journal | ||
| 2021[12] | Fiction | with Polly Barton (trans.) | Where the Wild Ladies Are |
| Creative Nonfiction | The Names of All the Flowers | ||
| Poetry | The Malevolent Volume | ||
| Magazines/Best Debut | Lucky Jefferson | ||
| Magazines/General Excellence | Mizna | ||
| 2022[13] [14] | Fiction | Pleasantview | |
| Creative Nonfiction | Plastic: An Autobiography | ||
| Poetry | book of the other: small in comparison | ||
| Magazines/Best Debut | Sistories | ||
| Magazines/General Excellence | Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora | ||
| 2023[15] | Fiction | Brother Alive | |
| Creative Nonfiction | Optic Subwoof | ||
| Poetry | Customs | ||
| Magazines/Best Debut | 128 Lit | ||
| Magazines/General Excellence | Ecotone |