February 7, 2019
After a close-but-no-cigar a semi-finalist finish in the Black River Chapbook Competition last week (which was still lovely and encouraging). Today I received this letter from The Sonder Press.
Dear Barrington
Congratulations! Your chapbook, After The Storms: A Tryptych has been shortlisted for our 2018 competition. You will be notified by February 8th if your manuscript has won, and been selected for publication. Runners-up may also be selected for publication independent of the prize. We do ask that at this time, if your work is simultaneously submitted elsewhere, you withdraw it from any outstanding competitions/presses. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to speaking again soon.
Fingers crossed for this! When I find out tomorrow I’ll update this post with the verdict!
In the meantime, you might want to check out Sonder Press / Review’s cool-looking website.
Update, February 9: They wrote to say they need a few more days to decide.
Update, February 15: I’ve waited a couple days to post so they could do their press release and site update — but here’s the verdict.
Dear Barrington Smith-Seetachitt,
After an extremely difficult deliberation, we regret to inform you that your chapbook After The Storms: A Triptych has not been selected for our 2018 prize. It has, however, been awarded an Honorable Mention as one of the top five manuscripts under consideration. Our official press release announcing the winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions will be released Thursday and our website will be updated accordingly. We were very impressed with your work and encourage you to submit again in the future, to both our press and review, we would love an opportunity to read your work again.
I’ll post a link to the winners when it goes up, with a congrats to them. I’m sure I’m in very good company!
What happened with the chapbook? What is a chapbook?
They are still thinking about it, apparently! I hope to hear this week.
A chapbook is a collection of works — often poetry, but sometimes fiction, that is too small to be a normal book… it’s like a mini-book! Mine is three connected stories that could be read separately (and one has been published previously) but that I would love to see published together because they “go” together! Thanks so much for asking, Jenny!! Hope you are doing well!