Fred Johnston is an Irish writer, poet, literary critic and musician, born in Belfast 1951, he has written numerous anthologies, plays, novels, short stories and has also translated various works. Johnston has and continues to contribute a lot to the literary world; he is co-founder of the Irish Writers’ Co-operative 1974, which is a publishing outlet for new Irish Fiction, he is the founder and current director of the Western Writers’ Centre in Galway, and also he founded Galway’s annual Cúirt International Festival of Literature in 1986.
Johnston has already won the Prix de l’Ambassade twice, for translating the work of French poet, Michel Martin; he received the Hennessy Literary Award for prose in 1972, and Sunday Independent Short Story and Poem of the Month awards. He has now been nominated for the celebrated Pushcart Prize. The most honoured literary project in America, anthologies of its selected work has been published every year since 1976.
Johnston has been nominated by Belgium based literary magazine, The Luxembourg Review, which has an international advisory panel. The poem selected for the award was, ‘Business End’, the Pushcart prize commemorates ‘poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs or stand-alone excerpts from novels’.
Pushcart have yet to release the date on which the winners will be announced, you can keep up to date with them via their website or through their twitter account.
"A distinguished annual literary event." Is how the New York Times described the Prize.
