Expect your endpapers to be tickled!
ANNOUNCING: The bpNichol Chapbook Award 2013
“Small press is the guardian of literary culture and free speech.” – bpNichol
The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $2,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.
- Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of a chapbook of poetry in English published in Canada in 2012.
- Chapbooks must contain no fewer than 10 pages and no more than 48 pages.
- Submissions must include a brief CV of the author, plus the address, telephone number, and email address of both the author and publisher.
- Send to: Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award, 6249-2100 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M6S 5A5
- The closing date for submissions to the 2013 competition is July 1, 2013. (Submissions must be received by this date.)
- The winner will be announced at the Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market in fall 2013.
The cash prize to the publisher is generously donated by writers Jim Smith and Brian Dedora. All chapbooks submitted will be archived at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.
Please email Meet The Presses for more information: meetthepresses@gmail.com.
*
Meet the Presses is a Toronto-based collective devoted to promoting micro, small and independent literary presses. This collective has come together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses event launched in Toronto in the mid-1980s by Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross. Meet the Presses organizes a variety of curated public events, all focussing on independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Meet the Presses – an unfunded and non-profit collective – is comprised of Gary Barwin, Lucy Cappiello, Paul Dutton, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Hazel Millar, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, and Stuart Ross.
Chapbooks written by members of the Meet the Presses collective are ineligible for the award. Authors of chapbooks published by members of the collective remain eligible for the award.
Poet Adrienne Gruber is the winner of the 2012 bpNichol Chapbook Award for her chapbook Mimic, published by Leaf Press of Lantzville, B.C. Named for the late poet, novelist, and indie publisher bpNichol (1944-1988), the prize language poetry chapbook published in Canada in the previous year, as selected by a panel of judges. Administered by Toronto-‐based small-‐press collective Meet the Presses, the prize is worth $2,000 to the winning writer.
Originally from Saskatoon, Gruber currently lives in Vancouver. Her first poetry collection was This Is the Nightmare (Thistledown Press, 2008). She has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards and anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, 2010. Her chapbooks Mimic (Leaf Press) and Everything Water (Cactus Press) were published in the fall of 2011.
This year marks the first in which the winning publisher will also receive a cash prize. Through the generosity of poet Jim Smith, Leaf Press will receive $250. Publishing poetry chapbooks since 2001, Leaf Press (www.leafpress.ca) is an independent press located on Vancouver Island.
This year’s judges were Toronto writers Bill Kennedy and Maggie Helwig, who included the following in their remarks on the winner:
“Gruber has written a sequence of connected poems, taking us from underwater landscapes to late night Portuguese bakeries, marked by brevity and precision, witty and alienist by turns. She deserves this year’s bpNichol Chapbook Award for making our minds race and our skins crawl.”
The judges selected the winner from scores of submissions from across Canada. This year’s other finalists were:
Spencer Gordon, Feel Good! Look Great! Have a Blast!, Ferno House
Liz Howard, (skullambient), Ferno House (Toronto)
Robert Martens, Poltergeist, Lipstick Press (Gabriola, B.C)
Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin, let lie, above/ground press (Ottawa)
Hugh Thomas, Opening the Dictionary, above/ground press (Ottawa)
In 2012, Meet the Presses took over the administration of the annual bpNichol Chapbook Award, which was inaugurated in 1996. The winner was formally announced today at the Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market at the Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Street, Toronto.
The market gives the public the opportunity to meet independent literary publishers and authors and take home books, chapbooks, magazines, broadsides, and recordings that re largely not available in bookstores.
Meet the Presses is a volunteer literary collective devoted to organizing public events showcasing publications produced by independent publishers of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. If you have any questions, or wish to arrange an interview, contact Stuart Ross at 416-887-7820 or meetthepresses@gmail.com
In 2012, the Meet the Presses collective took over the administration of the annual bpNichol Chapbook Award, which was launched in 1996. Named for the late poet, novelist, and indie publisher bpNichol, the $2,000 prize is awarded to the author of the best poetry chapbook published in the previous year, as selected by two judges appointed by Meet the Presses.
Judges Bill Kennedy and Maggie Helwig — both writers themselves — made the tough choices this year.
The finalists for the 2012 bpNichol Chapbook Award are:
- Spencer Gordon, Feel Good! Look Great! Have a Blast!, Ferno House (Toronto)
- Adrienne Gruber, Mimic, Leaf Press (Lantzville, B.C.)
- Liz Howard, (skullambient), Ferno House (Toronto)
- Robert Martens, Poltergeist, Lipstick Press (Gabriola, B.C.)
- Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin, let lie, above/ground press (Ottawa)
- Hugh Thomas, Opening the Dictionary, above/ground press (Ottawa)
The winner will be announced at the Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market, which takes place on November 17, 2012, noon to 4:30 p.m., at the Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Street, in Toronto.
The market gives the public an opportunity to meet independent literary publishers and authors, and take home books, chapbooks, magazines, broadsheets, and recordings that are largely not available in bookstores.
The Meet the Presses collective is Gary Barwin, Paul Dutton, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, Stuart Ross, and Carey Toane.
About the 2012 Judges:
Maggie Helwig lives in Toronto. She was co-coordinator of the Toronto Small Press Fair from 1998 to 2003, and the event coordinator/associate director of the Scream Literary Festival from 2005 to 2009. She was among the founding members of the Meet the Presses collective. Her most recent book is the novel Girls Fall Down, published by Coach House Books in 2008.
Bill Kennedy once cold-called Bob Cobbing from a London phone booth. He proceeded to spend two days of his vacation with Bob perusing Writers Forum publications, an experience he considers his only real bona fide for judging a chapbook award. Bill is the co-author (with Darren Wershler) of Apostrophe (ECW, 2006) and Update (Snare Books, 2010). He’s a long-time literary organizer, from the Café May Reading Series (with Michael Holmes), to the Lexiconjury Reading Series (with Angela Rawlings), to the Scream Literary Festival (with a whole bunch of awesome people) where he did a ten-year stint as Artistic Director. The Apostrophe Engine (www.apostropheengine.ca), the web-based poem that generated the book, has recently appeared as part of the Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. His latest venture is Intelligent Machines (www.intelligentmachines.ca), a digital media co-operative. Bill lives in Toronto.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
12-4:30
Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick St, Toronto
Meet the Presses is curating a third Indie Literary Market for November 17 at the Tranzac Club in Toronto. Meet the Presses is an all-volunteer literary collective devoted to organizing public events showcasing books and chapbooks, magazines, recordings, and broadsheets produced by independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. The collective has come together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses events begun 28 years ago in Toronto by Stuart Ross and Nick Power.
The Indie Literary Market is an invitational event focused exclusively on things literary. It will provide an opportunity for the public to meet independent literary presses and make direct purchases of publications that may not be readily available (or available at all) in bookstores and other commercial outlets.
Baseline Press
Brick Books
Cactus Press
Coach House Books
Existere
Ferno House
The Firm & Aerie
Gesture Press
Imago
Insomniac Press
Laurel Reed Books
learn/yeats & co
Mansfield Press
Pedlar Press
Proper Tales Press
Puddles of Sky
Rampike
Red Iron
Rufus Books
serif of nottingham
Sunnyoutside Press
TekstEditions
The Emergency Response Unit
The Porcupine’s Quill
Toronto Poetry Vendors
Twoffish Press
Underwhich Editions
More to be announced soon!
Claudia Coutu Radmore
for
Accidentals
Published by Apt. 9 Press
Honourable Mentions:
Kevin McPherson Eckhoff, Game Show Reversed (BookThug)
Toronto Poetry Vendors, Vol 2, No 1 (authors: Laurie D Graham, Sachiko Murakami, Aisha Sasha John, Linda Besner, Mathew Henderson, Nathaniel G Moore, Adam Seelig, Moez Surani, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Matthew Tierney)
Special mention for excellence in production: JackPine Press
The judges for this year’s competition were Maggie Helwig and Bill Kennedy.
View more information on the bpNichol Chapbook Award here.
Some of us believe the chapbook is the natural and friendly form for publishing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
Come join us and check out this stubborn resister of eBooks and spines!
A Scream Unfestival event.
AngelHousePress • Apt. 9 Press • BookThug • The Emergency Response Unit • Gesture Press • Horse of Operation • Imago Press • Junction Books • Laurel Reed Books • Proper Tales Press • Red Iron • Serif of Nottingham • Sunnyoutside • Talking Pictures • Toronto Poetry Vendors • Twoffish Press • Underwhich Editions • AND MORE!
Saturday, July 9, noon till 5 pm
Clinton’s Tavern, 693 Bloor West
FREE ADMISSION!
Presented by the Meet the Presses Collective
meetthepresses@gmail.com
Another excellent reason to swing by next weekend’s market:
Meet the Presses’ Toronto Indie Literary Market
proudly presents a digital display of
The Last Vispo Anthology
edited by Crag Hill and Nico Vassilakis
Saturday, June 5, 2010 | 12-5 | Clinton’s Tavern,
693 Bloor Street West, Toronto
The Last Vispo anthology is a 300-page book of visual poetry featuring well over 125 different seasoned and emerging writer/artists from around the world and covers the decade between 1998 and 2008.
The Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market gives the public an opportunity to meet dozens of Canadian literary presses and directly purchase publications that may not be readily available (or available at all!) in bookstores. So far, participating publishers and magazines include:
- Anvil Press
- BookThug
- Brick Books
- Carousel
- Coach House Books
- Ferno House
- Gesture Press/Battered Press
- HARDSCRABBLE
- Imago
- Insomniac
- Learn/Yeats
- Lowlife Publishing
- Mansfield Press
- Mercury Press
- Pedlar Press
- Peter O’Toole
- Porcupine’s Quill
- Proper Tales Press
- Rampike
- Red Iron
- Room 3o2 Books
- serif of nottingham editions
- sub-Terrain
- The Emergency Response Unit
- Toronto Poetry Vendors
- Underwhich Editions
- Wolsak & Wynn
This is Toronto’s only all-literary indie-publisher showcase! You’ll find cutting-edge fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction from some of the most exciting, challenging publishers in Canada.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
12-5
Clinton’s Tavern, 693 Bloor Street West
Admission is free. Clinton’s has a great selection of food and drink for purchase.
The Meet the Presses INDIE LITERARY MARKET on November 29 was a blast.
Thanks so much to all the participating publishers:
BookThug
Coach House Books
Cormorant Books
ECW Press
Exile Editions
Existere
Gesture Press
Insomniac Press/4 a.m.
learn/yeats & co
Mansfield Press
One Hour Empire
Pedlar Press
Playwrights Canada Press
Proper Tales Press/Peter O’Toole
Rampike
serif of nottingham editions
The Emergency Response Unit
The Expert Press
The Mercury Press
The Porcupine’s Quill
The Puritan
Twoffish Press
Um, Yeah Press
Underwhich Editions
White Wall Review
Wolsak & Wynn
and especially to all the enthusiastic members of the public who turned out for this event. Thanks, too, for emptying your pockets in the name of indie Can-lit!
Click here to view photos from the Indie Literary Market.
Stay tuned in the new year for more events devised and put on by the Meet the Presses collective.
If you’d like to join our email list, just drop us a note at meetthepresses@gmail.com.
today, Nov. 29, at the Indie Literary Market, Toronto’s only all-literary indie-publisher showcase! You’ll find cutting-edge fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction from some of the most exciting, challenging publishers in Canada.
Admission is free. Clinton’s has a great selection of food and drink for purchase.
Date: Saturday, November 29
Time: 12pm to 5pm
Location: Clinton’s tavern (back room), 693 Bloor St. W
Participating presses and magazines include:
BookThug
Coach House Books
Cormorant Books
ECW Press
Exile Editions
Existere
Gesture Press
Insomniac Press/4 a.m.
learn/yeats & co
Mansfield Press
Mercury Press
One Hour Empire
Pedlar Press
Peter O’Toole
Playwrights Canada
Proper Tales Press
Rampike
serif of nottingham editions
The Emergency Response Unit
The Puritan
Twaddle
Twoffish Press
Um, Yeah Press
Underwhich Editions
White Wall Review
Wolsak & Wynn
Come meet dozens of local literary presses and directly purchase publications that may not be readily available (or available at all!) in bookstores. Get started on your holiday shopping!
Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market
Come meet dozens of Toronto’s best literary publishers of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction! Literary books, chapbooks, broadsides and recordings for sale – including lots of stuff you’ll never find in stores!
Saturday, November 29
noon – 5 pm
Clinton’s Tavern (rear room)
693 Bloor St. W
Just one block east of Christie Subway Station
Free admission! Cash bar! Great food!
For more info, click here.
Meet the Presses is a new, all-volunteer collective devoted to promoting micro, small and independent literary presses within the Greater Toronto Area. This new collective has come together in the spirit of the original Meet the Presses event begun in Toronto in the mid-80s by Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross.
Members of the new Meet the Presses organize a variety of curated public events that interest them, and all the events focus on independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.
Meet the Presses’ flagship event is a literary market focused on sales of literary books, chapbooks, magazines, and recordings. Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market is a curated event – that is, the participating publishers are chosen by the Meet the Presses collective. The Indie Literary Market gives the public an opportunity to meet local literary presses and directly purchase publications that may not be readily available (or available at all!) in bookstores and other commercial outlets.
This new incarnation of Meet the Presses – an unfunded and non-profit collective – was founded by five former coordinators of the Toronto Small Press Book Fair and four local writers and small pressers.
The collective consists of Gary Barwin, Paul Dutton, Maria Erskine, Ally Fleming, Beth Follett, Maggie Helwig, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power, and Stuart Ross.
Prepare to have your endpapers ruffled!
