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❡ Call for submissions to the 2026 bpNichol Chapbook Award ❡

The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry in English published in chapbook form within Canada. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $4,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.

Chapbooks should be not less than 10 pages and not more than 48 pages. The chapbooks must have been published between January 1st and December 31st of the previous year (2025), and the poet(s) must be Canadian.

Please note: Please note: We love reading every chapbook we receive, and it’s testament to the Canadian chapbook scene that we receive as many submissions as we do. Moving forward, however, we would like to be mindful of the labour we’re asking of our volunteer judges, who are not members of MTP. We’d therefore encourage presses to self-select up to 10 of their best chapbooks for submission to the bpNichol Chapbook Award. This is not a strict limit.

Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of eligible chapbooks. Translations into English from other languages are eligible, as long as the translator is Canadian or a permanent resident of Canada. Chapbooks by two or more poets who are Canadian or permanent residents of Canada are also eligible.

Please include the Submission Form with your entry.

Submissions must be sent by Canada Post or courier (and not hand-delivered to a Meet The Presses collective member) and include a completed submission form or accurate facsimile, a brief CV of the author, including address, telephone number, and email address. Publisher contact information (contact person, mailing address, email address, and telephone number) must also be included. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

The opening date for receipt of submissions is January 31, 2026, and they will be accepted until May 31, 2026 If submission confirmation has not been received by email by June 30, 2026, please send a query to Aaron Tucker at aarontucker82@gmail.com.

Please send submissions to:
Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award
c/o Aaron Tucker
33 King’s Bridge Road
St. John’s NL
A1C 3K4

The cash prize to the author has been generously donated by an anonymous donor. The prize to the publisher has been generously donated by writers Karl Jirgens and Michael Dean. All chapbooks submitted are archived at McMaster University, details of which can be found at: https://library.mcmaster.ca/finding-aid/barwin-chapbooks.

Chapbooks written by members of the Meet the Presses collective are ineligible for the award. Authors of chapbooks published by members of the collective remain eligible for the award, but member-publishers forgo the prize money.

A hearty congratulations to Microchimaera by Jeremy Luke Hill, published by Baseline Press for winning the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award! Our judges, MA|DE (https://ma-de.ca/) and Kevin Spenst (https://kevinspenst.com/), had this to say about the winner:

Stunningly strange and fantastically complex, the sequence of Jeremy Luke Hill’s Microchimaera twists personal parenthood and creaturely biology into a single poetic helix. Obsession begets repetition, and mundane life reiterates into myth, in a multi-headed song of the blood in which “past lives die always, trail their dead selves / like angels of history trail refuse of time, / sloughing off dead cells and empty eggshells.” These are poems to appreciate on a first reading, discover on a second, and learn from in all subsequent rereads.

Thanks again to our amazing judges, who also spoke glowingly about the other Finalists! (TITLES listed in alphabetical order):

failed (after)lives — Ryanne Kap (The Blasted Tree)

The multiform poetic texts presented in Ryanne Kap’s failed (after)lives move like bumblebees from pop culture to academic theory to personal conversation, turning disparate flowers into a single, multifloral honey. Hovering between lyrical pantology of death and dismissively self-conscious witticism, this chapbook is a remarkable success. 

five from hem — Annick MacAskill (Gap Riot Press)

Within the span of five poems, Annick MacAskill’s five from hem manages a feat few achieve even in a full-length work: the articulation of a personal poetics. Laying classical translations against vibrantly contemporary reimaginings, and forming them along the lines of her own distinctive shorthand, MacAskill creates a snowglobe cosmos that transcends millennia. 

Permutations — Paula Turcotte (Baseline Press)

Paula Turcotte’s Permutations triangulates the surreal, pop culture and a playfully gritty eroticism into poems that sizzle. Smart, funny and fantastically varied in phrasing and form, Turcotte’s poems render the world livable for another day under a panoply of rituals.   

The Whole Catastrophe — Jami Macarty (Vallum Chapbook Series)

In the long poem “Allowing for Betweens,” which opens The Whole Catastrophe, Jami Macarty reconfigures new spaces for attentiveness within an eco-poetics centred on grief for the loss of someone to suicide, which is itself both a spur to elegy and an occasion for reflection upon environmental devestation. This poem transforms a moment’s journey into searing poetic intensity. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted! An amazing slate of small press publications from across Canada! Keep your eyes here for further information about the 2026 award!

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to gab away in the chat and celebrate Canadian small press publishing and the glory of chapbooks! If you missed the event, you can watch it here:

As announced in the video, we are thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award. Thanks again to our judges MA|DE (https://ma-de.ca/) and Kevin Spenst (https://kevinspenst.com/)!

THE FINALISTS

failed (after)lives — Ryanne Kap (The Blasted Tree) https://www.theblastedtree.com/store/failed-afterlives

five from hem — Annick MacAskill (Gap Riot Press) https://www.gapriotpress.com/shop/p/annick-macaskill-five-from-hem

Microchimaera — Jeremy Luke Hill (Baseline Press) https://www.baselinepress.ca/shop/microchimaera-luke-hill-2024

Permutations — Paula Turcotte (Baseline Press) https://www.baselinepress.ca/shop/permutations-paula-turcotte-third-printing

The Whole Catastrophe — Jami Macarty (Vallum Chapbook Series) https://vallummag.com/product/38-jami-macarty-the-whole-catastrophe/

We’ll be announcing the winner at our annual Indie Lit Market in Toronto, Nov. 2 from 12-4 PM at the Cecil Centre (58 Cecil Street). Looking forward to seeing you there!

Please join us on October 15th on our Youtube channel to see the announcement of the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award Finalists. Follow along LIVE at 7:30 Eastern.

The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry in English published in chapbook form within Canada. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $4,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.

❡ Call for submissions to the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award ❡

The bpNichol Chapbook Award recognizes excellence in Canadian poetry in English published in chapbook form within Canada. The prize is awarded to a poetry chapbook judged to be the best submitted. The author receives $4,000 and the publisher receives $500. Awarded continuously since 1986, the bpNichol Chapbook Award is currently administered by the Meet the Presses collective.

Chapbooks should be not less than 10 pages and not more than 48 pages. The chapbooks must have been published between January 1st and December 31st of the previous year (2024), and the poet(s) must be Canadian.

Please note: Please note: We love reading every chapbook we receive, and it’s testament to the Canadian chapbook scene that we receive as many submissions as we do. Moving forward, however, we would like to be mindful of the labour we’re asking of our volunteer judges, who are not members of MTP. We’d therefore encourage presses to self-select up to 10 of their best chapbooks for submission to the bpNichol Chapbook Award. This is not a strict limit.

Interested authors or publishers should submit three copies of eligible chapbooks. Translations into English from other languages are eligible, as long as the translator is Canadian or a permanent resident of Canada. Chapbooks by two or more poets who are Canadian or permanent residents of Canada are also eligible.

Please include the Submission Form with your entry.

Submissions must be sent by Canada Post or courier (and not hand-delivered to a Meet The Presses collective member) and include a completed submission form or accurate facsimile, a brief CV of the author, including address, telephone number, and email address. Publisher contact information (contact person, mailing address, email address, and telephone number) must also be included. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

The opening date for receipt of submissions is January 31, 2025, and they will be accepted until May 31, 2025 If submission confirmation has not been received by email by June 30, 2025, please send a query to Aaron Tucker at aarontucker82@gmail.com.

Please send submissions to:
Meet the Presses / bpNichol Chapbook Award
c/o 33 King’s Bridge Road
St. John’s NL
A1C 3K4

The cash prize to the author has been generously donated by an anonymous donor. The prize to the publisher has been generously donated by writers Karl Jirgens and Michael Dean. All chapbooks submitted are archived at McMaster University, details of which can be found at: https://library.mcmaster.ca/finding-aid/barwin-chapbooks.

Chapbooks written by members of the Meet the Presses collective are ineligible for the award. Authors of chapbooks published by members of the collective remain eligible for the award, but member-publishers forgo the prize money.

We’re pleased to announce that The Conveyor by Steve Noyes (Alfred Gustav Press, Vancouver) has won the 2024 bpNichol Chapbook Award. Congrats to Steve Noyes, who wins the $4000 prize (thank you to our anonymous donor!) and to Alfred Gustav Press won wins the $500 publishers prize (sponsored by Karl Jirgens and Michael Dean – thank you!). A further special thank you to our judges Chris Turnbull and Brian Dedora for reading through all of this year’s terrific entrants!

Lastly, please do check out all the finalists for this year’s award:

green screen: postcards to the real by pete gibbon (bird, buried press)

Distractions by Eve Joseph (Baseline Press)

Joan Would Say by Stevie Manning (knife fork book)

Secondhand Moccasins by Melissa Schnarr (Anstruther Press)

We’re thrilled that the the Indie Literary Market is soon soon! Please come join us Sunday Nov. 17th from 12 to 4:30 at the Cecil Street Community Centre (58 Cecil Street) in downtown Toronto.

If you want a sneak peak, you can have a look through our program to see who all will be there selling books and performing their work! Download a PDF here!

We’ll also be announcing the winner of this year’s bpNichol Chapbook Award, as selected by our judges Chris Turnbull and Brian Dedora! Please click on the links below to buy copies of the finalists’ chapbooks. As well, you can find readings from each of the finalists on our Youtube page as part of our H of a Night celebration!

green screen: postcards to the real by pete gibbon (bird, buried press)

Distractions by Eve Joseph (Baseline Press)

Joan Would Say by Stevie Manning (knife fork book)

Secondhand Moccasins by Melissa Schnarr (Anstruther Press)

The Conveyor by Steve Noyes (The Alfred Gustav Press)

See you soon!

We’re pleased to announce the finalists for this year’s bpNichol Chapbook Award, as selected by our judges Chris Turnbull and Brian Dedora! Please click on the links to buy copies of these terrific chapbooks. As well, you can find readings from each of the finalists on our Youtube page as part of our H of a Night celebration!

green screen: postcards to the real by pete gibbon (bird, buried press)

Distractions by Eve Joseph (Baseline Press)

Joan Would Say by Stevie Manning (knife fork book)

Secondhand Moccasins by Melissa Schnarr (Anstruther Press)

The Conveyor by Steve Noyes (The Alfred Gustav Press)

Congratulations to all the nominated authors and publishers! Come to our annual Literary Market on Sunday Nov. 17th from 12 to 4:30 at the Cecil Street Community Centre (58 Cecil Street) in downtown Toronto to find out the winner!

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be announcing! On October 20th, on our Youtube Channel, we’ll be releasing the finalists for this year’s bpNichol Chapbook Award. Make sure to check them out and celebrate the authors and publishers!

The winner will be announced at our Indie Literary Market on November 17th. We’ll be hosting this year’s Market from 12 to 4:30 at the Cecil Street Community Centre (58 Cecil Street) in downtown Toronto. We have many many small press goodies to shop for, plus readers galore to listen to, while you’re waiting to hear the winner.

Please save the date for our Indie Lit Market on Sunday Nov. 17th from 12 to 4:30 at the Cecil Street Community Centre (58 Cecil Street) in downtown Toronto. We have over 30 different vendors that will have all sorts of micro, small, and independent literary goodies for sale! Please come by, say hello, and pick up some great books!

We’ll also be announcing the annual bpNichol Chapbook Award during the market. We’re thrilled to have two excellent judges this year: Chris Turnbull and Brian Dedora. Thank you to our judges, and to the presses who submitted the wonderful chapbooks for consideration.