Stories that are lyrical, insightful, imaginative.
John Medeiros is a memoirist, poet, editor, and lawyer.
His memoir, Self, Divided (Howling Bird Press) is the winner of the Howling Bird Press Nonfiction Prize. It was selected as a Finalist for a 2022 Minnesota Book Award in the Memoir and Creative Nonfiction category, and won Honorable Mention for the 2021 Forward INDIES Book of the Year Award. An excerpt of the memoir has been named a Notable Essay by Best American Essays and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
He is also the winner of the Gulf Coast Prize for Nonfiction and the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Intro Journals Award. He has been a Finalist for numerous literary awards, including the Loft/McKnight Literary Prize, Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize, Sport Literate Nonfiction Prize, and the Brenda Ueland Prize for Nonfiction.
Formerly a Writer-in-Residence for the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts and co-curator of the Queer Voices Reading Series of Intermedia Arts for twelve years, John is the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board grants (one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction) and he has served as a literary judge for both the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Jerome Foundation.
He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and his work is published in literary journals throughout the United States.
Awards & Merits
2022, Forward INDIES Award, Honorable Mention (Self, Divided)
2021, Minnesota Book Awards, Finalist (Self, Divided)
2020, Howling Bird Press Nonfiction Prize (Self, Divided)
2012, Pushcart Nominee (couplets for a shrinking world)
2012, Minnesota Book Award Nominee (couplets for a shrinking world)
2010, University of Hong Kong Poetry Prize, Finalist (brothers, keepers & dna)
2010, Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, Third place (Losing Dylan)
2010, Minnesota State Arts Board Grant (poetry)
2009, Judge, Intermedia Arts/Jerome Foundation Grant
2008, University of Wisconsin Press, Semi-Finalist (brothers, keepers & dna)
2008, Saturnalia Books Poetry Contest, Finalist, Mark Doty, Judge
2008, Sport Literate Nonfiction Contest, Finalist (Touch. Flag. Tackle.)
2008, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts Fellowship, Finalist
2008, Intermedia Arts/Jerome Foundation Grant
2007, Loft/McKnight Literary Prize, Finalist (Self, Divided)
2006, Outstanding Thesis, Creative Nonfiction, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN
2006, Pushcart Nominee (One Sentence)
2006, Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2006 (Self, Divided)
2006, Water~Stone Review, Brenda Ueland Prize, Finalist (How to Love a Poz Man)
2006, SASE/Intermedia Arts Writer-to-Writer Mentorship (Self, Divided)
2006, The Talking Stick Nonfiction Contest, Honorable Mention (Thoughts of the Lyric Artist on the Day Before Treatment: Updates in HIV Therapy)
2006, Minnesota State Arts Board Grant (nonfiction)
2006, Writer-in-Residence, Banfill Locke Center for the Arts, Fridley, Minnesota
2006, VSA Arts of Minnesota Artist Recognition Grant
2005, Judge, Minnesota State Arts Board Arts Initiative Grant (Poetry)
2005, Presenter, Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs (AGLSP) Annual Conference, Hamline University. Topic: The New Essay
2005, Judge, Jerome Foundation/SASE Literary Grant for Writers
2005, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Intro Journals Project
2005, Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize, First Place (One Sentence), Wayne Koestenbaum, Judge
2005, Jerome Foundation Grant and Resident Fellowship, Blacklock Nature Sanctuary Fellowship for Emerging Artists
2005, Loft Literary Center Mentorship Series, Finalist (Self, Divided)
2005, Cornucopia Arts Center Residency Program, Lanesboro, MN, Finalist
2005, New York Mills Arts Center Residency Program, Finalist
1997, The Loft's GLBT Inroads Program, Winner
the day twisting to meet its end
& we all fall down
"Seven Trumpets for the Living & the Dead (the Awful Naming of Things)"
song for the living
of whatever it is that is left
when love no longer breathes.