PressPress Chapbook Award 2008
The PressPress Chapbook Award is for an unpublished chapbook length manuscript of poems. The winning manuscript will receive $300 and chapbook publication with PressPress.
Entries for the Award were received from all Australian states, as well as China, Turkey, Poland and New Zealand with one bilingual manuscript and some great innovative work. There was a great standard overall which is good for the state of poetry but a nightmare for judges.
The full shortlist was:
The Unsuspecting Sky by Carolyn Fisher
Treading earth by Jennifer Mills
Oneida by Jessica Wilkinson
The poet is always a smoker by Tessa Lunney
In the final judging, Carolyn Fisher's The Unsuspecting Sky was chosen to take the 2008 Award. Visit here again to see more from Carolyn Fisher.
At this stage we're anticipating running the Award again in 2009 with more prize money and perhaps other perks which we'll think up later and perhaps another section. If you were one of the people who wrote to us lamenting their lateness, I'd start thinking about it now. We'll run the Award about the same time in 2009.
Coming: Alison Thompson's Slow Skipping
This will be Thompson's first published collection and one which those who know her work have been requesting for a long time now.
Latest: Jennifer Compton's Roma
Jennifer Compton's ROMA is now out. Go to her page to see a sample poem, read some background to the book and some review highlights of previous works. Compton's strong and distinctive voice captures her unique Rome.
Go to the How to buy section to purchase on line or send a cheque for $9.90 Australian (or equivalent) per title. It would be really good to support this smallest of small presses. We go for quality over quantity, but quantity helps.
About the press
PressPress is poetry publisher. It is probably the smallest publisher in the known universe. The aim of PressPress is to have good, accessible chapbooks at a reasonable price. It's a bit idealistic, but then, so is writing poetry in a time of fire.
Poetry in a time of fire is the unofficial motto of PressPress. Poetry is what people are interested in. If you're startled by this, you haven't been paying attention. Most people, at some time in their lives, have written a poem or two (usually more). This is something you can't say of novels, or tv scripts or even cartoons. Poetry is a universal thing, like music. We're not quite clear on why we do it but it seems to be one of things human creatures do. So I'm not going to defend poetry. It needs no defence.
Go to PressPress poets by clicking on the links to the right. You'll find details of their work, background, some reviews, photos and a sample of their work. Enjoy.
How to submit
Because PressPress is small and the chapbooks are only available through this site or at readings, we ask that you buy at least one title so that you know have a good idea of what the chapbooks are (while supporting the press you want to support you).
After that, make an enquiry via email with one sample poem and then maybe we'll ask for more if it's the sort of thing we're interested in. Be prepared to wait, for an answer and for publication. Or not. Sometimes we're fast, mostly we're not.
PressPress prefers to have all submissions received digitally. Hardcopy submissions without a return postage will be thoughtfully recycled.
Contact
email: info@presspress.com.au
PressPressPO Box 94
Berry NSW 2535
Australia
or Use the feedback form