About The Chapbook Award

In memory of bpNichol, a prize of $2,000 is offered for the best poetry chapbook written in English and published in Canada. The chapbook should be between 10 and 48 pages long. This annual award is sponsored by the Phoenix Community Works Foundation. The poet or publisher should submit three copies (not returnable) and a brief curriculum vitae to:
The bpNichol Chapbook Award
Attn: Philip McKenna
316 Dupont Street
Toronto, Ontario M5R 1V9
T: 416-964-7919
F: 416-964-6941

Deadline
is March 30th of each year.

Help Support This Project: 
Through donations and fundraising events, we have increased the amount of the annual award to aspiring poets from $1,000 to $2,000.  We have also established a bpNichol Coordinating Committee which overseas the award and will participate in the selection of a bpNichol Literary Committee for the seleciton of Judges.  The Committee members are:

Dane Swan, Rocco Di Giacomo, Sandra Kasturi and Philip McKenna.  We are currently looking for 1 more volunteer to join the bpNichol Coordinating Committee. If you are interested, please contact Natalie at (416) 964-3380 x 203.

In the works, we would like to establish a 2nd and 3rd prize. If you would like to support this project through a contribution, grant or donation, please contact us or make a donation online.

Also new this year is our very own page on a new site dedicated to bpNichol and his work.  For the most uptodate information on the bpNichol Chapbook Poetry Award, please visit, www.bpNichol.ca.

Previous Winners

2008 – two winners shared the award for 2008, Jay Millar, Toronto poet, editor,
publisher and virtual bookseller for Lack Lyrics and Clara Benson with
her entry Quantum Chaos & Poems. Clara lives in New York City, but
is published in Canada by BookThug, which coincidentally is owned and
operated by award winner, Jay Millar.

2007 – Jake Kennedy for Hazard, published by BookThug, Jay Millar

  • 2006 winners of the bpNichol Chapbook Award:
    Steven Ross Smith & Hilary Clark (writers),
    Betsy Rosenwald (art and design)
    for
    Pliny’s Knickers

        Published by,
        JackPine Press (2006)
        804 Idywyld Cresc.
        Saskatoon, Sask.
        Canada S7M 0B2

    www.JackPinePress.comThe judges, Bev Daurio and Richard Truhlar, wished to include the artist/designer in the award as her work was integral to the finished chapbook.

    • 2005 winner:
      Lisa Robertson’s “ROUSSEAU’S BOAT” has been selected as the winner of this year’s Chapbook Award.
      It is published by
      Nomados, P.O.Box 4031
      349 West Georgia St.
      Vancouver,B.C., V6B 3Z4
      The following excerpt is published with permission:
      “It was only half past eight, but the month was April.
      With greeny pleasure I wrote.
      This is the melodic contour of the cry of a kind of fruitdove.
      People emerged.
      My body became apparition in the hot, thin air.
      I wrote a story of beginnings, of beginnings, of meat, of words.
      I wanted to realize gender as a form of tactile thought.
      I intended to be nourished.”
    • Co-winners for 2004:
      Susan Clark, as lit x:the syntax of adoration: published by Friends of Runcible Mountain, Vancouver, BC
      Barry McKinnon, Bolivia/Peru:published by Gorse Press,Prince Geroge, BC
    • Co-winners for 2003:
      Allan Brown, Imagines Lantzville, B.C.: Leaf Press
      Stan Dragland, 12 Bars (St. John’s, Nfld.: Running the Goat Books)
    • 2002 Robert Kroetsch The New World and Finding It Mother Tongue Press
    • 2001 M.W. Field The Sapphire Morpho
    • 2000 Hilary Mosher Buri Frau Rontgen’s Hand (Published by Outlaw Editions – 2829 Dysart Road, Victoria B.C. V9A 2J7)
    • 1999 P.K.Page Alphabetical
    • 1998 Nicole Marcotic More Excess
    • 1997 Lance Blomgren Liner and Manual for Beginners
    • 1996 Janice Williamson A Boy Named
    • 1995 Barry McKinnon Arrythmia
    • 1994 Mathew Remski Organon Vocis Organalis:bk.II of Aerial Sonography
    • 1993 George Bowering Do Sink
    • 1992 George Bowering Quarters & Theresa Kishkan Morning Glory
    • 1991 Susan Musgrave In The Small Hours of The Rain
    • 1990 Mary Howes Q H S
    • 1989 Paul Dutton Additives
    • 1988 Robin Blaser The Faerie Queen and the Park & Nicole Brossard Sous La Langue/Under Tongue
    • 1987 David Donnell The Natural History of Water
    • 1986 Mark Laba The Mac Bolan Poems

    Related Links:

    • Coach House Press is the online home to all things related to this Canadian poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter
    • abebooks.com
    • Talon Books
    • The Four Horsemen
    • Light and Dust Books
    • Sharp Facts