Newlove Award Chapbooks
Joan of MediaJoan of Media
by


"Moments of sensuality unfurl in a pastiche of hope amid trauma. I find myself standing in a beautiful field of blooms despite the thorns. The poem reminds me the strongest way to capture a moment in time is to recall the colours among the black and grey." Jacqueline Valencia, 2022 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-989299-05-0
Price: $10.00 CAD

How to Be HumanHow to Be Human
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"I feel the kindred recognition of the ridiculousness of being human. Richard-Yves Sitoski has lifted a regular moment into something both glittering and poignant that for a moment made me forget about routine, expectation, order. This poem cleaned my smeared glasses and straightened my collar. Here I am, buoyed and mentally reorganized to face another pandemic day." Elee Kraljii Gardiner, 2021 John Newlove Poetry Award judge. Cover art by Catherine Jones.


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-989299-04-3
Price: $10.00 CAD

VestigesVestiges
by


"Dark, bracing and evocative and full of energy, this poem surprised at every line, with unexpected images, stark contrasts and an extremely satisfying final stanza that invites the reader to cycle back to the beginning of the poem and revisit it all again." Dina Del Bucchia, 2020 Bywords John Newlove Poetry Award Judge




Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: : 978-1-989299-03-6
Price: $10.00 CAD

What the Haruspex read in the Small hours of my BodyWhat the Haruspex read in the Small hours of my Body
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“Judging a poetry prize is always a challenge because the form has so many possibilities of address, subject, and tone. The poems entered in the John Newlove Poetry Award competition were a pleasure to read for their passionate politics and the appetite they showed for taking up difficult material. In the end, I chose as the winning poem one that brought together the most assured overlap of image, affect, and idea with an admirable use of lyric voice and form.” Tanis MacDonald, John Newlove Poetry Award Judge, 2019.



Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-989299-02-9
Price: $10.00 CAD

Death Is A White BalloonDeath Is A White Balloon
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The secret heart of poetry is the jolt of familiar things, familiar words reimagined. This is how poetry, like Frankenstein’s monster, brings dead things back to life. The winning poem in this year’s John Newlove Award presents a lush folding of language and image that sounds convincing, but requires delightful imaginative leaps to fill the resonant gaps. Here is a space for vitality. Fabulous poetry can have a monstrous vitality. The art of juxtaposition is a sudden, revealing turn away from what is expected and dull into something new and more. The art of plywood, however, is in gluing bits of scrap together until the motley jangle becomes strong enough to work. This poem is like plywood, for it uses multiple valences to find a source of iron whim. It pulls these disparate forces all together, glues them solid, and then travels forth into imaginary landscapes on a raft made of collaged words.
Gregory Betts
2018 Bywords John Newlove Poetry Award Judge



Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-989299-01-2
Price: $10.00 CAD

Sasanka (Wild Flower)Sasanka (Wild Flower)
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"The winning poem of the 2017 John Newlove Award vibrates with life all the while conveying a monastic silence. The poem patiently effloresces as it moves, line by line and image by image, at its own ruminative pace. Devoted to the natural world, the poet convokes the spiritual and the organic in language that sings with grace and clarity."

Gillian Sze, 2017 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge




Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-1-989299-00-5
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AshesAshes
by


The winning poem is spare in its use of poetic conventions, but is startling and vivid in its imagery. Each of its core images will stay burned in my mind for some time to come. In the poem, we see ourselves reflected in subtle ways: our flaws and strengths at odds with one another and yet sitting side by side comfortably.

Kimmy Beach, 2016 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge




Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-9-7
Price: $8.00 CAD

dreampunkdreampunk
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"Ameliorative, dissociative, and particular, this poem makes no sense make sense. It's all in your head!" Matthew Rader, 2015 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge

Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-8-0
Price: $6.00 CAD

HeelHeel
by


"After Googling Ophelia" is a restless marriage of the tragic and the banal, a sensual enigma drawing you in with its familiarity and strangeness. Every time I visit it, fresh ripples of awarness emanate from its heart composed of hearsay." Camille Martin, 2014 Bywords John Newlove Poetry Award Judge

Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 9790981041773
Price: $6.00 CAD

BroodBrood
by


The poem  is succinct, funny, and disturbing all in one.  An irreverent revery about escape, and its potentially dire result.  The words are carefully chosen, but not precious, and effectively shaped into a potent little poem.

Alice Burdick
2013 Bywords John Newlove Poetry Award Judge


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-6-6
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The Tiger with the Crooked MouthThe Tiger with the Crooked Mouth
by


The poem possesses a rivering playfulness, a playful awareness of the ambiguous and tricky current of words. At the same time, it is keenly alive with their visceral, and tangible currents. You want to dive into this river of words; never the same twice.
 
Gary Barwin 
2012 Bywords John Newlove Poetry Award Judge 



Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-5-9
Price: $6.00 CAD

Miss Canada InternationalMiss Canada International
by


From the department of curious Canadiana arrives a poem in conversation with the ecopoetic and disjunctive narrative fixations of writers countrywide. The poet nods to Legris nods to MacEwen. Left-aligned stanzas are interwoven with indented asides - or perhaps a poem within a poem. Both. Drenched and stretched, aurality translates what is not quite read. The text itself finishes mid-thought, or does not finish, or does not. Any. Either. All.

a.rawlings 
2011 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-4-2
Price: $6.00 CAD

Beneath Black SurfaceBeneath Black Surface
by


"This year`s winner of the John Newlove Poetry Award stood out from a strong field of finalists for its rich execution of focalized perception and its economical rendering of character through the use of terse, gritty idiom. Character in its formative context is communicated from the child`s perspective through concrete observations of small things, until the adult`s worldview arrives and is heard in the poem like a drill that has pierced its way through the distance of time and memory.


Jason Camlot
2010 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-3-5
Price: $6.00 CAD

The Glass JawThe Glass Jaw
by


"The winning poem does what it means; it puts its money where its mouth is. From the startling metaphoric seize of the opening, the lines propel themselves full throttle, through sonic reverberations and imaginative mimesis. Like that loud kid at the pool, here's a poem that shouts and leaps boldly and compellingly, demanding - and deserving - our full attention.


Stephanie Bolster 
2009 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge



Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-2-8
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One Man ParadeOne Man Parade
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Manatee "is witty and thoughtful, mysterious and competent. It does not sacrifice prosody and notation to affect. It shows confidence and practised skill on the part of its author."

George Bowering
2008 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-1-1
Price: $5.00 CAD

LupercaliaLupercalia
by


[PYGMALION & GALATEA, the award winning poem,] sustains a classic narrative visually, while also permitting taut and tantalizing wordplay. The poet crafts vivid, alive images, allows enjoyable contrasts, and interrupts expectations, thanks to choice line-breaks and enjambment. [The winning poem] is not only a ludic lyric; plain speech is also granted poetic power. It takes the John Newlove Award because its poet is fearless-adventuring, risking, and daring much, specifically in making the poem an art form, but one as adamantly accessible and as plastic as language itself. Its teasing nature renders it pleasing, and there is no treasure without pleasure.

George Elliott Clarke
2007 John Newlove Poetry Award Judge


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9810417-0-4
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MetaFizzMetaFizz
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Third in the John Newlove Poetry Award Chapbook series, MetaFizz is Roland Prevost's first poetry collection.


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 978-0-9699565-8-7
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welcome to beautiful san riawelcome to beautiful san ria
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Second in the John Newlove Poetry Award Chapbook series, Welcome to Beautiful San Ria is Melissa Upfold's alternative universe to Sarnia, Ontario.


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 0-9699565-7-6
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Dust FreeDust Free
by


First in a planned series of limited edition chapbooks written by John Newlove Poetry Award winners, Dust Free, Norma Elliott´s first poetry collection, reflects Norma´s sense of humour, biting wit and fond memories of Newfoundland in language that gets straight to the point, and to your heart. Norma says,

"Newfoundland gave me my soul, a hunger for all the surprises of life, including poetry, and the strength to bide my time till each return."


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition of 126 copies.
ISBN: 0-9699565-5-X
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Moments Not Monuments: Remembering John NewloveMoments Not Monuments: Remembering John Newlove
Moments, Not Monuments is a limited edition volume celebrating the poignant poetry of John Newlove, who died in December 2003. Contributors include Steve Artelle, Aidan Baker, Gary Hyland, rob mclennan, Colin Morton, Pearl Pirie, J.C. Sulzenko, Gordon Phinn and Rob Thomas. Moments, Not Monuments features poems reprinted from John Newlove's Moving In Alone and Apology for Absence.


Publisher: Bywords
Limited Edition.
ISBN: 0-9699565-3-3
Price: $5.00 CAD