Finalists for the 2016 bpNichol Chapbook Awards Announced

The Meet the Presses collective has announce the finalists for the 2016 bpNichol Chapbook Award. The prize, awarded annually since its establishment in 1985, goes to the author of the best poetry chapbook published in Canada in the previous year. It is named in honour of the late poet, novelist, and micropress publisher bpNichol.

With a prize of $4000, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is the richest annual literary award for a poetry chapbook. The publisher of the winning title also receives $500 thanks to an annual donation by Toronto writers Brian Dedora and Jim Smith.

Judges Alice Burdick of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, and Hoa Nguyen of Toronto, Ontario, chose the finalists from more than 60 submissions from across the country.

The finalists for the 2016 bpNichol Chapbook Award are:

Nelson Ball  Small Waterways (Apt. 9 Press  www.apt9press.ca) 
Klara du Plessis  Wax Lyrical  (Anstruther Press  www.anstrutherpress.com) 
Marilyn Irwin The Blue, Blue There (Apt. 9 Press  www.apt9press.ca)
Lillian Necakov The Lake Contains an Emergency Room (Apt. 9 Press  www.apt9press.ca)
Christine Stewart  The Odes  (Nomados Literary Publishers www.nomados.org)

The winner will be announced at 2 p.m. on November 19, 2016, at the annual Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market