UA Press releases new Permafrost Prize winner

March 8, 2016

University Relations

The University of Alaska Press has published Becky Hagenston's "Scavengers: Stories," winner of the 2015 Permafrost Book Prize in Fiction.

This is Hagenston’s third collection of stories. She is an associate professor of English at Mississippi State University. Her winning entry for the Permafrost Book Prize was chosen from nearly 150 entries.

The prize is presented annually by Permafrost, a literary journal produced by graduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The prize alternates annually between books of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The UA Press publishes the winners' work.

Hagenston will offer a reading at 7 p.m. April 8 in Schaible Auditorium. She'll be joined by author Ben Percy, who judged the 2015 prize entries.

In Hagenston's “Scavengers,” stories mix the familiar with the bizarre. A woman obsessed with reality shows meets a sorority girl on a very personal scavenger hunt. A man discovers that his father suddenly believes in lake monsters. A woman goes to St. Petersburg, Russia, and tries to lose herself in museums and palaces to avoid dealing with her husband’s near fatal accident. A grown-up Hansel tries hard to be a good father. A young girl begins to suspect that the séances taking place in her basement aren’t as harmless as they seem.

For more information about this title and many more, please visit www.uapress.alaska.edu or call 800-621-2736.