Beginning in the 16th century, the chapbook has proved adaptable to a wide range of material, from political tracts to penny songs and poems. These inexpensive booklets were originally distributed to a diverse audience by "chapmen" who sold them at bars or on street corners with their other wares.

Today there is still an active community of chapbook publishers, and chapbooks can be found in all shapes and sizes, stapled together, silk-screened, or sewn, often in limited editions for collectors and enthusiasts of the medium.

The Poetry Society of America continues this tradition with its chapbook series presenting the work of new poets who have not yet published a full-length volume of poetry.


PSA CHAPBOOK FELLOWSHIPS

Each year four renowned poets select and introduce a winning  manuscript for publication.
Each winner receives $1000.


Announcing the 2011
PSA Chapbook Fellows
 

NATIONAL FELLOWSHIPS:


Marni Ludwig's Little Box of Cotton and Lightning,
    selected by Susan Howe

E. J. García's Your bright hand,
    selected by Gerald Stern

 

NEW YORK FELLOWSHIPS:

 

Angela Veronica Wong's Dear Johnny, In Your Last Letter,
    selected by Bob Hicok

Alison Roh Park's What We Push Against,
    selected by Joy Harjo

 

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Recent Winners

2010

Badger, Apocrypha by Adam Day, selected by James Tate

Black Anecdote by Andrew Seguin, selected by Rosanna Warren

Fragments of Loss by Hossannah Asuncion, selected by Kimiko Hahn

Slow Dance with Trip Wire by Camille Rankine, selected by Cornelius Eady

2009

A History of Waves by Haines Eason, selected by Mark Doty

The Sundering by Stephanie Adams-Santos, selected by Linda Gregg

The Good News of the Ground by Heidi Johannesen Poon, selected by Cole Swensen

Lure by Jocelyn Casey-Whiteman, selected by Arthur Sze

2008

Ave, Materia by Jean Hartig, selected by Fanny Howe

Blue House by Christopher Nelson, selected by Mary Jo Bang

Swerve by John Estes, selected by C. K. Williams

The Category of Outcast by CJ Evans, selected by Terrance Hayes