Ruby Street

I am currently involved in the various tasks in getting a book ready for print and release . The book, at this moment, is called Breaking the Days , and was a joint winner of the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize last year . The other winner, Tracy Ryan, has already published her volume in late July. But back to this process. Because they are tasks, things that you do to make something. My initial task was to complete the manuscript after having the initial 150 lines (or so) being chosen last year. And thanks to Whitmore Press folks for offering this ongoing opportunity to poets, and, of course, for picking my manuscript last year. I did, in fact, have a longer manuscript idea I was working from, so I knew the field of poems I would be playing with. Mostly, though not entirely, they were a series of writings I had done during 2014, and to narrow it down, mostly during the first seven or eight months of that year. I have since included a few newer 2015 poems and reworked one or two ...

The shortlist for the Whitmore Press Manuscript Prize 2011 have just been announced. The following poets, listed in alphabetical order, have been shortlisted for the prize: B. R. Dionysius Paula Green Dominique Hecq Jill Jones Jo Langdon Laura Jean McKay Eddie Paterson Nathan Shepherdson Lucy Todd Corey Wakeling The organisers say: "With 116 entries received, a number of other very worthy submissions did not make the shortlist on this occasion. We found the entries to be of a very high standard. ...." Part of the condition of submitting to the award was to only put forward unpublished work of up to 150 lines and to have a longer work, for the complete chapbook, in mind. As Anne Kellas points out on her blog , these conditions may be what resulted in the 'very high standard'.   The winner, whose work will be published in a limited edition chapbook in early 2012, will be announced before the end of September.