Newsroom Archive


   

J Journal Earns National Recognition with 2013 Pushcart Prize for Fiction

New York, NY, May 7, 2012 – J Journal: New Writing on Justice, the literary journal of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has won a 2013 Pushcart Prize for Fiction for "The Fall of Punicea" by Paul Stapleton, a short story published in the journal's Spring 2011 issue. With this recognition, in addition to the two Special Mentions in the 2011 Pushcart Anthology, the well-regarded journal joins the ranks of the best literary journals in the United States.

Co-edited by Professors Adam Berlin and Jeffrey Heiman of the English Department, J Journal is published twice a year, targeting readers of literary journals and criminal justice professionals interested in creative writing. Contributors to the journal, sending work from across the nation and overseas, include new and established writers, lawyers, police officers, inmates, and professors in the social sciences and humanities.

"We are so pleased that Paul Stapleton's vivid, comic moment of imagined history will receive a wider readership," said J Journal's editors Adam Berlin and Jeffrey Heiman. "As we approach our tenth issue, we are starting to set the foundation for an enduring contribution to the literature of justice."

Paul Stapleton has advanced degrees in Classics and Creative Writing and is currently pursuing his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The Pushcart Prize — Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is one of the most honored literary projects in America. The country's top presses and most talented writers of short stories, poetry and essays have been represented in the pages of the annual collections. For its part, J Journal has been reviewed and praised for its content by Library Journal, Utne Reader, The ReviewReview and New Pages. NewPages noted that "Opening this stylish-looking rag is not just a distinct pleasure, it is a nourishing experience."

The tenth issue of J Journal will be published in late May, 2012. Subscriptions are available to individual readers and to libraries, law firms, criminal justice institutions and other criminal justice programs. For subscription information and submission guidelines, please visit www.jjournal.org or email the editors at jjournal@jjay.cuny.edu.

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.