above/ground press author Fenn Stewart's An OK Organ Man (2012) on the bpNichol 2013 chapbook award shortlist!

Congratulations to Toronto poet Fenn Stewart, whose 2012 chapbook An OK Organ Man (copies are still available) is on the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award shortlist! This is above/ground press' second appearance on the shortlist, after two titles appeared on last year's list. Nice, also, to also see above/ground press authors Gil McElroy and Shannon Maguire on the list for other titles, and even one of our authors as a judge! (the press appears to be everywhere these days) Congratulations to the entire shortlist!

Here's the press release that Toronto's Meet the Presses Collective sent out today:

Congratulations: Meet The Presses Collective and the bpNichol Chapbook Award Committee are pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award.

thirteen poems for releasing love by joanne thorwaldson (leaf press)
An OK Organ Man by Fenn Stewart (above/ground)
Ordinary Time: The Merton Lake Propers by Gil McElroy (baseline press)
fruit machine by Shannon Maguire (Ferno House)
21st century monsters by ryan fitzpatrick (Red Nettle Press)
naturally speaking by Sandra Alland (espresso [paperplates press])

The winner will be announced at 2PM on Saturday 16 November 2013 at the Indie Literary Market, Tranzac Club, Toronto. A cheque for $2,000 goes to the winning poet and $500 to the winning publisher. Donors for the prizes include Anonymous ($2,000 prize), Jim Smith and Brian Dedora ($500 prize).

Judges this year are Sandra Ridley (Ottawa) & kevin mcpherson eckhoff (Armstrong, BC), who received 90 chapbooks from which they made this year's shortlist selection.

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In the spirit of the original Phoenix Chapbook Award, which was adjudicated for its first two years by Frank Davey and bpNichol, and continued as the bpNichol Chapbook Award for 23 years by Phoenix Community Works Foundation, the award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry published in chapbook form. With the demise of Phoenix Community Works Foundation, the Meet the Presses collective was pleased to assume management of the award. 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 begun in Toronto in the mid-1980s by Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross. Members of Meet the Presses have organized a variety of curated public events, and all the events focus on independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Meet the Presses – an unfunded and non-profit collective – consists of members Gary Barwin, Paul Dutton, Beth Follett, Hazel Millar, Leigh Nash, Nicholas Power and Stuart Ross.