We are happy to present in this issue the winners of the 7TH annual Editor s Prize， including the first winner of the Larry Levis Prize in Poetry. Larry， a co-founder of THE MISSOURI REVIEW， was beloved by many students and friends who have cooperated generously to make the Levis Prize possible. Michael Pettit s winning selection of poems， as it happens， shares with much of Larry s an atmospheric melancholy， a subtle sense of humor， and a capacity for word intoxication. This year s Editor s Prize winner in fiction， Alice Fulton， is also primarily known as a poet. Fulton s winning "Happy Dust" is a brilliant， historically authentic portrait of an Irish immigrant in New York in the early twentieth century， a sickly， hard-working young woman with a rock-solid character and a scintillating view of the world. Pregnant with her fifth child， faced with dangers both obvious and unobvious， she may or may not make it through this birthing. It s an old-fashioned story in some ways， full of memorable characters， including a friend who is poisoning herself for beauty， a nun who suffers for Christ， and a kindly but misguided doctor who dispenses the latest powerful painkiller (heroin powder) to alleviate the pregnant woman s symptoms.