Two Anvil Press authors receive poetry award nominations

On Monday, October 15, The Royal City Literary Arts Society announced the 5th annual Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry shortlist. Nominated for the award is Escape from Wreck City by John Creary (Anvil Press).

The other recipients include The Celery Forest by Catherine Graham (Buckrider Books/Wolsak & Wynn), Slow War by Benjamin Hertwig (McGill-Queen’s University Press), Linger, Still by Aislinn Hunter (Gaspereau Press), All the Names Between by Julia McCarthy (Brick Books), and Table Manners by Catriona Wright (Signal Editions).

Miranda Pearson was the 2018 award judge. The winners will be announced on November 1, 2018.

On Tuesday, October 23, Meet the Presses announced the shortlist for the 2018 bpNichol Chapbook Award via Twitter.

Among the nominees is Elee Kraljii Gardiner for her chapbook, Trauma Head (Otter Press), a series of “visual poems based on actual pages of my medical file I hand-bind in a folder” says Elee. This fall, Anvil Press will publish her full-length memoir-in-poetry with sections of the chapbook reprinted inside under the same name, Trauma Head. Elee’s previous book, serpentine loop, was also published by Anvil Press.

*Trauma Head* chapbook, image courtesy of Elee Kraljii Gardiner

The other nominees for the bpNichol Chapbook Award are Deliver Me from Swedish Furniture, by Hollie Adams (ZED Press); The Tide, by Jake Byrne (Rahila’s Ghost Press); Augur, by Canisia Lubrin (Gap Riot Press); and Reunions in the Year of the Sheep, by Chuqiao Yang (baseline press).

The winner will be announced at the Meet the Presses Indie Literary Market on Saturday, November 17 in Toronto. The winning author receives $4,000, and the winning chapbook publisher receives $500.