It's exciting but all the entries have to wait so that they can go through the judging process together to allow fair comparison (they're all judged 'blind' ie without identifying the poet on the manuscript itself).
Response to Carolyn Fisher's winning chapbook has been very positive. She's organised a number of launches in Tasmania which I get reports about. After Carolyn's was published the long-awaited chapbook from Alison Thompson Slow Skipping came out.
Alison is from my own locality (ie boondocks) so I was very pleased about that. It's rare. Half of the titles originate from the Northern Territory or Tasmania.
In fact, one of the runners up for the Chapbook Award was also published - and was from the Northern Territory. This was Jennifer Mills with Treading Earth. I love this book. It has the qualities of the landscape it was written in. Have a look.
The next title will be different and is posing some production problems which might delay it. We shall overcome. There will also be another exciting opportunity in the second half of the year - but first, let us survive the 2009 Chapbook Award!
