The Sharon Drummond Chapbook Award was established in 2013 in memory of the Calgary poet of the same name and supported by Judith Robb. The award recognizes Alberta-based writers over 18 years of age who have never published a collection of poetry in chapbook or traditional book form. The winner receives a contract with Rubicon Press which includes editorial assistance from a guest editor and publication of the edited manuscript in chapbook form.
About Sharon Drummond:
Sharon Drummond lived in Calgary from 1976 until her death in 2005. She was dedicated to the craft of poetry. Her chapbook, Still the Rush, was published in 1999 and nominated for the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award. Her first full-length book, Into This Room, was published in 2001. Her final book, Where it Began, was published posthumously by Black Moss Press in 2006. Sharon was a skilled writing instructor who taught at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre and for the Calgary Board of Education. She was president of the AWCS and served on the executive of the Writers Guild of Alberta. Sharon is survived by writing friends and colleagues throughout the province, and by her 3 greatest fans — her daughters.
Past Winners
2014
Marco Melfi was the winner of the 2014 Sharon Drummond Chapbook Award for his manuscript, In between trains. The jury had this to say about the winning entry: “With spare language and attention to detail, this collection brings a poetic sensibility to the mundane transit experiences that are shared by many urban Albertans. As poetry should, it awakens us; what is normally a mere passing-between of the real moments of our lives now becomes a subject of intense examination.”
2013
Angela Simmons, author of Perhaps Held Before Paper, received the inaugural Sharon Drummond Chapbook Prize in 2013. Angela was honoured, alongside members of the award shortlist, at a public reading and reception during Alberta Culture Days on September 28 at Shelf Life Books in Calgary The shortlist for the Sharon Drummond Chapbook Prize included Cassy Welburn (Cirque du Soleil), Wilda Kruize (Missing Crab Legs), Angela Waldie (A Single Syllable of Wild), Jay Smith (The Plain Jane Plains), Hendrik Slegtenhorst (An Intaglio of Time) and Troy Sherdahl (It to a bit).