Snare Books

2008 Contest is on Now (Details Below)

Snare Books is thrilled to announce that Natalie Zina Walschots was the winner of the 1st annual Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. Her manuscript, Thumbscrews, was published in the fall of 2007 by Snare Books.

Thumbscrews is a poetic engagement with the aesthetics of sadomasochism and consensual pain. It employs the techniques of mannerist poetry to constrain language as ropes, cuffs, or shackles that might be used to constrain the body. Each poem can be taken as a miniature sadomasochistic encounter where language is tied up, beaten, and twisted into submission. This book abuses language; language begs for it.

Thumbscrews engages with the sexual subculture of BDSM in content as well as in form. It explores the erotic ’scene’ and the prevalence of role-playing in the kinky bedroom, examines various settings as ‘pervertable’ locations,and chronicles a series of embarrassing trips to the emergency room. Poems are shaped from the hobbled language of email, visual representations of pain, and odes to various implements. Thumbscrews is a dirty-minded, sticky-fingered book.

The prize will be awarded annually to the best poetry manuscript by an emerging Canadian writer (a writer who has published two books or less). Each year the winning manuscript will be selected by an established poet in co-operation with Snare Books. This year’s judge is Elizabeth Bachinsky.

The winner receives a trade paperback contract with Snare Books which will include the publication of the manuscript and a $500 honorarium.

The next deadline is January 31, 2008.

Each entry must be accompanied with a business size SASE and an entry fee for $30.00 Canadian. Please make all cheques payable to Livres Snare. No cash please.

About Robert Kroetsch:

One of Canada’s most celebrated literary artists, Robert Kroetsch is without a doubt Canada’s most important postmodern writer. His novels, poetry and theory have consistently been benchmarks for literary innovation in Canada. He won the governor General’s Award for his novel, The Studhorse Man, and in 2004, he was made an officer of the order of Canada. Snare Books is proud to honour his literary legacy through the establishment of the annual Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.

For More on Robert Kroetsch please visit:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/canlit/bibliographies/robert_kroetsch.shtml
http://www.nwpassages.com/author_profile.asp?au_id=748
http://www.athabascau.ca/writers/kroetsch.html

The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry
c/o Snare Books
#1A 4302 St. Urbain Street
Montreal QC
H2W 1V5

The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry Guidelines

The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry is a not-for-profit venture. All revenue earned from the entry fees will be invested in the printing and distribution of innovative poetry.

The Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry is an annual award given to an emerging poet (with two books or less) for a book-length collection of poetry (48-100 pages).

Each manuscript should be in English. No translations.

The judging will be blind. Manuscripts should not bear the name of the author. Contestants should include two separate title pages. One with the title and the author’s name and the other with only the title.

Contestants may enter more than once.

Contestants should include their email addresses, home addresses and telephone numbers with their entries.

Each manuscript should be accompanied with an entry fee of $30.00. Please make all cheques and money orders to “Livres Snare.” No cash please.

Only manuscripts mailed between August 15th and January 31st will be considered for the award.

The winner will receive a $500.00 honorarium and a trade paperback contract with Snare Books.

Contestants may submit their manuscripts to other presses but should notify Snare Books immediately if another press offers them contract.

Snare Books reserves the right to withhold the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.

For more information email
jon [dot] fiorentino [at] gmail.com