Did you know that there are two kinds of nominations for the Pushcart Anthology? I was looking through some old papers this morning and was reminded of the distinction.
The one most of us get is a nomination by the editors of a journal. Each editor of any literary magazine can send in up to six nominations each year. These can be any poem, story, or essay published in the year in question. If you think about it, this is quite an honor because an editor has selected your piece out of all the pieces that they have published in a year. I value every Pushcart nomination I’ve received because it tells me the magazine editors value my work enough to nominate it. Many magazines announce their nominees each year, which is a way to promote the magazine and to promote those writers. If there’s not a public announcement of nominees, I would hope that most magazines notify those nominated.
The other kind of nomination, though, is a little more impressive. That’s the letter I found when going through my files. I think at the time, I didn’t even realize there was a difference, but now that I’ve been a magazine editor and sent similar notifications to one or two of our nominees, I know the difference. This was a letter from The Literary Reveiw informing me that the Pushcart Prize editors had informed them that my poem “Persia” had been nominated for inclusion in the anthology. This means that the magazine had nominated me, and then the anthology editors had read my work and decided to send it on to the issue editor and judge of the contest. It’s like becoming a finalist or semi-finalist in a contest. My poem didn’t get the final nod from the editor for that issue, so I didn’t get in the anthology that year, but it did make it to that next round in the process.
Naturally, being selected for the Pushcart Anthology is the highest distinction. Getting nominated by a magazine initially is worth posting about and celebrating. Getting the nod to move on in the competition is an even bigger achievement. When I see people say in their bios that they are a Pushcart nominee, I always wonder which level they mean. For myself, I don’t make a big deal out of it anymore, though I was certainly proud and pleased when it happened. Finding that letter was a reminder that there’s a fair amount of confusion about what a Pushcart nomination means, so I thought I’d share my experience.
Kendall Dunkelberg 
I always thought that the second type of nomination was initiated by the Pushcart staff, which is still a great honor, but a little less complex than you describe. Their guidelines state, “We also accept nominations from our staff of distinguished Contributing Editors.” I once jhad a poem nominated by Gary Gildner when he was a Contributing Editor. So the letter you received from Literary Review was to tell you that your poem had been nominated independently by a Pushcart editor who then let the journal know. That’s pretty awesome! But I could be wrong about the process.