Chapbooks - How to put one together

Related pages: Books of Poetry Form. Alphabetic list of poetry forms and related topics. How to Write Poetry. How to write specific forms: Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Rondeau. Rubáiyát. Sestina. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Other poets: Bernice Rendrick. Franz Wright. Jack Gilbert. Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Len Anderson. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Nordic Skalds. Richard Hugo. W.S. Merwin.

Books of Poetry Form. Books read.

Checklist for a chapbook. Chapbook comparisons. Permafrost Chapbooks. Portlandia Chapbooks.
2006 winner of Portlandia Chapbook contest: When, by the Titanic (John Pursley III). Blog entry for When, by the Titanic.
2004 winner of Permafrost Chapbook contest: The Nightmare Parable (Do Gentry).
2004 winner of Portlandia Chapbook contest: Why I Kick At Night (Ron Drummond).
2002 winner of Portlandia Chapbook contest: Five-hundred Widowers in a Field of Chamomile (John Surowiecki).
2009 winner of In Celebration of the Muse Chapbook Award: Trainsong (Bernice Rendrick).

Checklist for a chapbook

1. Decide why are you compiling a chapbook. For a contest? To self publish? Simply to organize your material?

2. If for a contest, get its guidelines. Plan to follow its requirements for number of pages and their contents. Beside the poems, you are often asked to include:
   • Chapbook title.
   • Acknowledgments.
   • Table of contents.
   • Brief biography.

3. Get guidelines for some other contests. They may clarify something or generate ideas. Even if you don't target a contest, get and use some guidelines anyway.

4. For a contest, consider who are the judges. Then decide which of your poems might be so appealing to them that you need to include them in your M.S.

5. Buy winning chapbooks, particularly previous winners of any contest you target. Review them.

6. When picking your candidate poems, they could:
   • Support the theme or a counter-theme of your M.S.
   • Support and expand your intended aesthetic for the M.S.
   • Add variety.

7. When arranging your candidate poems:
   • The first poem is critical in giving a sense of the M.S.'s theme and aesthetic.
   • The final poem is important in the same way as the first.
   • Place the poems between the first and final poems so that they form a path or journey, perhaps of emotion, perhaps of narrative.

8. Re-arrange your candidate poems to improve the flow. Drop the weak ones, add stronger ones. Write new ones if essential to complete the M.S.

9. Set a personal deadline (perhaps a couple of weeks away) for when the M.S. will be ready for someone else to review.

10. Contact one or more friends with skills in constructing manuscripts. Ask if they will review your draft manuscript on the deadline you just decided.

11. Reread the resulting M.S. a dozen times, until the sequence feels 'right.' Make notes on ideas for revising poems where needed, but for the moment focus on sequence.

12. Reread the poems in small groups of two, three, or five. Check that they fit in their sequence. Again, make notes on ideas for revisions.

13. Reread the M.S. several times, then make the needed revisions.

14. Write up the additional material needed by the competition, so you can give your reviewers a complete M.S. Also write up some directions for them, so they can focus on what you want. Often this will be:
    1. can the sequence be improved?
    2. what must be cut?

15. Circulate the M.S. to your reviewers, with a request for comments in 1 or 2 weeks. Give yourself a reward of chocolate or whatever floats your boat.

16. Get reviewers' comments and apply where needed.

17. Submit to contest or print up copies.

18. Pray to your appropriate gods and reward your reviewers, perhaps by doing something similar for them.

Chapbook comparisons

Permafrost Chapbooks

The Nightmare Parable (2004) by Do Gentry.
This manuscript is the 2004 Permafrost Chapbook Contest Winner. Favorites include: "Helen At the New Moon" (p. 11), "Helen Improvises God" (p. 12-13), "The Postumous Helen" (p. 22), "Helen Lost in the Crowd" (p. 26), and "Helen and the Blue Door" (p. 29).

Portlandia Chapbooks

Why I Kick At Night (2004) by Ron Drummond.
This manuscript is the 2004 Portlandia Chapbook Contest Winner, under the leadership of Portlandia's Chief Editor, Karen Braucher.

Five-hundred Widowers in a Field of Chamomile (2002) by John Surowiecki.
This manuscript is the 2002 Portlandia Chapbook Contest Winner, under the leadership of Portlandia's Chief Editor, Karen Braucher.

Comparison of some chapbooks:

Chapbook title:	The Nightmare Parable	When, by the Titanic	Why I Kick At Night	Five-hundred Widowers in a Field of Chamomile
Pages of poems:	26	27	27	20
Number of poems:	20	20	20	17
Book title:	Not a poem title	Title of 8th poem	Title of first poem	Title of last poem
Themes:	Helen of the Gnostics; the soul in exile; personification of Sophia (wisdom); inspiration; transcendence.	Father, disaster, siblings, death.	Life, death, HIV, the body, food.	Loss. Smells and tastes.
Vocabulary and tropes:	Mostly direct. Some radiant metaphors and similes.	Mostly direct.	Direct.	Lots of metaphor and similes. Many obscurities, acknowledged by 2 pages of notes.
Tone:	Natural, ardent.	Natural, conversational.	Natural, conversational, includes humor.	Jittery and jumpy.
Forms:	Free verse; short lines and short stanzas.	Four poems in couplets, four in triplets, three sonnets, two full-justified blocks, and one poem in sestets. The rest in miscellaneous forms. Stilted by quaint 'poetical' affectations: capitalization of every line, the use of '&' for 'and' and '&c.' for 'etc.' Riddled with m-dashes.	Free verse. One sonnet.	Free verse.
Initially in Bardsong	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in Barrow Street	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in Blue Mesa Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in The Briar Cliff Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Chiron Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Colombia: A Journal of Literature and Art	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Cream City Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Cumberland Poetry Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in DIAGRAM	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Georgia State University Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Global City Review	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in Hunger Mountain	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in The Journal	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in Kimera	Gentry	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Margie	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in The Mississippi Review	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Mot Juste	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in National Poetry Review	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Nimrod International Journal	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in North American Review	--	Pursley	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Northwest Review	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in The Notre Dame Review	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Painted Bride Quarterly	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Phoebe	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in Poetry New York	--	--	Drummond	--
Initially in Poetry Southeast	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Portland Pen	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Prairie Schooner	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in Rattle	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in RHINO	--	--	--	Surowiecki
Initially in River City	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Smartish Pace	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Sojourn	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in West Branch	--	Pursley	--	--
Initially in Willow Springs	--	Pursley	--	--

Links and Books.

• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of Britain
• Laureate: the Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.
• Best Poems by the Best Poets - Some Lists of Winners.
• Other Books of Poetry Form.

Related pages: Books of Poetry Form. Alphabetic list of poetry forms and related topics. How to Write Poetry.

Copyright © 2006-2016 by J. Zimmerman, except for the quoted poems.

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