The Meet the Presses collective announced last month the finalists for the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award. The winner will be announced on November 14, at the annual Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market, which runs from 11:30 am to 5 pm at the Tranzac Club, at 292 Brunswick Avenue, in Toronto.

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.

Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, the purse doubled to $4,000 in 2014, making it the richest annual literary award for a poetry chapbook — a collection of no more than 48 pages. The publisher of the winning title also receives $500, thanks to an annual donation by Toronto writers Brian Dedora and Jim Smith, both of whom were friends of bpNichol.

The finalists for the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award are:

Nelson Ball, A Gathering (BookThug)
Jason Christie, Cursed Objects (above/ground press)
Phil Hall, Notes from Gethsemani (Nomados Press)
Ben Ladouceur, Lime Kiln Quay Road (above/ground press)
Matt Rader, I Don’t Want to Die Like Frank O’Hara (baseline press)
Lissa Wolsak, Of Beings Alone: The Eigenface (Nomados Press)

The winner will be announced at 2 pm on the day of the Indie Literary Market. The event is curated by Meet the Presses, a volunteer literary collective devoted to organizing public events showcasing the work of independent publishers of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

I attended the event last year and discovered some new writers and artists, whose work I would not know otherwise. The intimate setting for this market makes it ideal to chat with them; as well as, buy a book or two. This is a Free Admission event. For more information about the Indie Literary Market and the 2015 bpNichol Chapbook Award, please visit the Meet The Presses’ website.