2018 Subbed In Chapbook Prize finalists announced
Subbed In is a not-for-profit volunteer-run independent literary organisation and small press based in Sydney, Australia. We provide a platform to amplify underrepresented voices, facilitating grassroots support for young and emerging writers to achieve publication or performance.
In early 2018 we launched our second annual Chapbook Prize, hoping to find the next book we would publish. We had an overwhelming response to the callout with more than 100 entries. We were staggered by the quality of the submissions received and after much deliberation managed to narrow the list of finalists down to 14.
All of the finalists' manuscripts are worthy of publication and the more funds received the more books we'll be able to publish! Donate here.
Finalists
Plunge The Mirkwood — Sumudu Samarawickrama
Unicorns with Unibrows — Brianna Bullen
Friends of Charlene/ANGEL K: contemporary stan culture and defacto gay motherhood, the angelic pop figurehead, and emotional risk in Kylie Minogue's music — Jonno Revanche
The Hostage — Šime Knežević
sediment — Claire Albrecht
If you're sexy and you know it slap your hams — Eloise Grills
Wheeze — Marcus Whale
burgeoning — Zhi Yi Cham
DOOM GUT — Ursula Robinson-Shaw
Pag-asa't Panalangin — Joseph Schwarzkopf
WHEN I DIE SLINGSHOT MY ASHES ONTO THE SURFACE OF THE MOON — Jennifer Nguyen
nostalgia has ruined my life — Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle
how to eat fire and why — Mitch Cave
HAUNT (THE COOLIE) — Jason Gray
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In 2017 we published the work of Allison Gallagher, Aisyah Shah Idil and Emily Crocker.
We hope you will help us to continue publishing and amplifying new and important voices.
Rewards
$50+: Your choice of any 3 Subbed In chapbooks. Delivered in December 2018.
$200+: Signed first editions of each chapbook published. Plus a special Subbed In merch package that isn't available online. Delivered in December 2018.
$500+: A special thank you including your name will be published in the acknowledgement section of the books. Plus signed first editions of each chapbook published and a special Subbed In merch package that isn't available online. Delivered in December 2018.
💚💖 More funds=more books 💖💚
Last year's winners
Here's a book that holds you close and says “it’s okay, things are weird”. Alli's poetry explores what it takes to be in and amongst bodies, to be loving and empathetic in the internet age. Hope glimmers and shakes as Alli entwines tenderness and heartache, surfing dogs and estrogen pills. A debut collection that is instantly loveable; as eviscerating as it is gentle.
This remarkable debut collection pulls apart the threads of liminality and traces their paths across culture, family, and environment. Shah Idil’s experimental sense provides a transformative frame for an uncompromising lyricism, pushing outwards beyond the pages and prodding at the edges of memory and oblivion. Shah Idil’s work is magical and relentless, brimming with love.
Crocker complicates home and family in her debut book, Girls and Buoyant. With sensitivity and wry observation, Crocker explores old suburbs and new loves at the intersections of intimate moments and where late capitalism pokes at our lives. This striking debut poetry collection presents an unflinching examination of life outside the margins of the urbanised middle class.