Sometimes the direction forward isn’t clear. But sometimes you get a hint that you might be doing okay.
This morning, the ceremony was “televised” youtubized for the 2022 Nelson Ball Prize for poetry of observation. Over 100 submissions came in and in November, the long list included my chapbook from Apt 9 Press, rain’s small gestures. ICYMI the long list was:
Lines – Cameron Anstee (St. Andrew Books)
Undoing Hours – Selina Boan (Nightwood Editions)
wind – Guy Ewing (Puddles of Sky Press)
a grain of sand – Helen Hajnoczky (above/ground press)
Zero Dawn – Shelly Harder (above/ground press)
A Number of Stunning Attacks – Jessi MacEachern (Invisible Publishing)
Gone South – Barry McKinnon (above/ground press)
Rain's Small Gestures – Pearl Pirie (Apt. 9 Press)
Ghosthawk – Matt Rader (Nightwood Editions)
So/I – Andy Weaver (above/ground press)
A list of people I admire and I have read most of the books and chapbooks. I don’t envy judges having to make a call on that sort of thing.
Then the short list came and my chapbook, incredibly, was still standing. This morning, it was announced I won. How crazy is that?
Watch the ceremony. It includes information on Nelson Ball’s new book, 57, being released in Swedish translation and going to every library in Sweden. And a memorial bench looking at the Nith River in Paris, Ontario with Nelson’s poem on it, with his name and Barbara Caruso’s.
The shortlisted poets each share wonderful poems. Cool to see people in video. Some I haven’t seen the face of in a decade or more.
Cameron Anstee is articulate and gracious and I’m more deer in headlights but there you go. James McDonald reads the judges notes with a fun flare — each cover popping into frame.
Writing can be a disempowering path. Unless you’re a charismatic über polymath who can write, edit, do marketing and design and distribution and not rely on others to get your word out into the world.
Or to put an optimistic way, writing is a collaborative path that leads to connections with people who complement and complete each other’s skill sets and hold each other in mutual admiration. I’m glad to place this collection with a press and publisher I admire, Cameron Anstee. I’m glad to find other minds that can hear me and who I can hear.
In other news, I have recapped my year in review, of interviews, reviews, and favourite books read at pesbo. And for those of you who love stats, or at least don’t hide under the nearest furniture to see numbers, I’ve done my annual demographics of what I read and plans of what to direct myself towards next.
For 2023 may you stay healthy, happy, warm and wise, and wealthy in all the ways that matter.
Pearl